Rapid Web News

We have Google Chrome search engine Google OS on the horizon and now Google are starting to develop their own DNS solution.

DNS – the Domain Name System – converts a text URL into numeric IP addresses. This is typically handled by your ISP, but Google wants to perform this task in its own way;

“The average Internet user ends up performing hundreds of DNS lookups each day, and some complex pages require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading,” stated Prem Ramaswami, he went on to say; “This can slow down the browsing experience. Our research has shown that speed matters to Internet users, so over the past several months our engineers have been working to make improvements to our public DNS resolver to make users’ web-surfing experiences faster, safer and more reliable.” Now I myself have just over a 10 Meg line which is more than fast enough for me but I’m just curious as to how this will filter down for the average Jo but I suppose it is still in the ‘idea’ stage.

“It’s not clear that Internet users really want Google to keep control over so much more of their Internet experience than they do already – from Chrome OS at the bottom of the stack to Google Search at the top, it is becoming an end-to-end infrastructure all run by Google, the largest advertising company in the world. I prefer a heterogeneous Internet with lots of parties collaborating to make this thing work as opposed to an Internet run by one big company.” This is a statement from OpenDNS founder David Ulevitch. Interesting internet times…

Ubuntu 9.10, the user-friendly, free, Linux-based operating system, is to be released tomorrow (the 29th of October 2009). Canonical, Ubuntu’s corporate sponsor, states that Ubuntu 9.10, codenamed Karmic Koala, ‘puts the user at the heart of its new design’, and being an Ubuntu user myself for about three years and a Linux user for significantly longer, I can certainly agree.

Having been a tester of Ubuntu 9.10 during its development, I can tell you that Ubuntu 9.10 will feature the following upon its release.

• E-mail and Chat Features – Ubuntu 9.10 will feature a built-in instant messenging client, Empathy, which can connect to many of the most popular instant messaging services, including Yahoo, Gmail (Google Talk), MSN (Windows Live), Jabber, AOL, QQ and many more. In addition to instant messaging, the latest version of the e-mail and personal information management program, Evolution, is included. Evolution can manage your contacts, e-mail, schedule, tasks and memos – all for free.

• Internet – Ubuntu 9.10 ships will the very latest version of Mozilla Firefox, which is much faster and excellent for browsing modern websites and web applications which are heavy on dynamic client-side content, such as Javascript. Complex web pages such as Facebook, Google Maps and others will load and work lightning fast.

• Music and videos – Music and videos are managed with ease in Ubuntu 9.10. Simply plug in your iPod, PSP, MP3 or MP4 player and use the built-in media player, Rhytmbox, to download, store, buy and play your music collection. Ubuntu 9.10 can play many video formats with no problems and anything it can not play it will offer to download and install the required codecs automatically, and for free.

• Office and productivity – Word processing, spreadsheets or presentations can all be handled by the latest version of OpenOffice.org which is including in the latest version of Ubuntu. OpenOffice is compatible with all other office applications including, but not limited to, Microsoft Office.

• Store, share and synchronise – Ubuntu 9.10 features integrated ‘Ubuntu One’ service, which allows you to easily and seamlessly synchronise your contacts, notes, files and folders between all your Ubuntu computers. Even if you are on a computer running Mac or Windows you can still access all your files online, meaning you’ll never be at computer without your files.

• Software centre – The brand new software centre for this version of Ubuntu allows you to download and install thousands of free and open-source applications automatically with only 2 or 3 clicks.

• Gaming – Linux-based systems are generally not well known for their gaming prowess. However, Ubuntu 9.10 ships with the ability to download over 400 fun games directly from the built-in software centre. All these games are still completely free and installable with only a few clicks.

This latest version of Ubuntu provides advantages for both business workstations and home user desktops. Although not mentioned in this article so far, for enterprises and small home/offices, the server edition of Ubuntu 9.10 is also released tomorrow alongside the desktop edition.

For more information about Ubuntu, visit the official Ubuntu website.

So British Telecom has announced plans to roll out fibre optic to one in six of the population by 2012…

Could this be a hoax? Is BT planning to rip out all that dated, worn out copper wire? Will people in rural areas finally get decent speeds? – All good questions. BT initially were only installing fibre to new build areas but now, it seems, they are branching out. BT are claiming that 1.5 million homes will have access by next summer however they also say that they are only Installing fibre-optics as an integral part of local telecoms cabinets in some cases.

This means that they are putting a bang up to date technology in fibre optics and sticking it on the end of copper wire which could potentially only give you a third of the actual speed being transmitted. I appreciate it will speeds things up to a degree but why not just do the whole lot with an ongoing project. Start with the people getting rubbish connection speeds in rural areas as the above proposed ‘fix’ would help these guys out no end, then start and work on larger towns and cities as not many here get poor connections in these places. Wouldn’t that make more sense?

Let’s hope BT can hold onto enough of its customers to warrant such a huge undertaking, now that Virgin Media are dedicated to getting fibre optic to the people it could turn into a race or better still a price war…

BT’s range of goods can be found here

This is an interesting little gem of a story I found whilst skimming the net. Prince Charles, no less, is calling for greater broadband speeds in rural areas to the unison cries of ‘finally’. The government has formed some kind of rural superpower called The Rural Coalition who is now recognising the decline in support for remote villagers not just for the huge drop off in trade for small farming outlets and village shops but ISP’s turning their back on rural areas. The government admitted that it had “…undervalued the countryside and failed to meet the needs of rural communities…” I believe that’s what happens when you allow supermarket chains to build mammoth stores wherever there is a free square mile of land!

“…The Commission for Rural Communities estimate at least two million people in the countryside have slower speeds than 2Mbps, not to mention those 166,000 in “not spots” where there is no broadband at all…” – surely something that has been accurate for some time. ADSL suppliers, I’ve always believed, have been ripping people off for years. I have friends who live in rural areas and barely break a meg, antique wiring, ropey phone connections and the old classic “…I’m sorry sir, your actually paying for up to 8 meg but I see your 17 miles from the nearest exchange…” bah! Sort yourselves out! You’ve been taking peoples cash for years, time for an upgrade methinks, not like these huge companies don’t have the capital.

“…High-speed Internet access will be essential in years to come for all businesses – rural and urban – and those communities that do not have it will be at a severe economic and social disadvantage…” said Charles Trotman, Head of Rural Business Development. Ok now this is a classic statement, this would have been perfect if claimed in the early nineties but the internet is not a new development it’s been researched since the 60’s and started to fully emerge as a viable technology in ’89 so its 20 years later and ALL businesses, in some form or another, rely on the internet for lots of things from email to stock checking.

“…The Government has promised everyone will have speeds of 2 Megabits per second (Mbps) by 2012…” Sigbritt Löthberg of Sweden has been supplied with an internet speed of 40 gigabits, that’s right 40 GIGABITS! I’m sure she would laugh her Swedish behind off at the above statement. This lady was supplied this speed internet last year so I guess it just comes down to that old fashioned excuse, money, or should I say the unwillingness so spend it. Down with copper wire! Let’s start moving into the noughties with fibre optic, let’s show the rest of the world that us Brits do want to move forward technically, stop building domes, focus less on tea drinking and move forward with the rest of the world. Amen.