“Today we made the world’s highest video call from Mount Everest base camp.” The statement by Pasi Koistinen, head of the telecom firm Ncell, could well become one of the landmark quotes in Internet history. On October 30, Koistinen’s firm, a joint venture between Nepali investors and Swedish telecom giant …
Amazon’s Kindle devices are selling in China because the e-reader allows users to log on to banned sites such as Twitter and Facebook, according to Hong Kong’s newspaper South China Morning Post. The device bypasses the Chinese government’s firewall, becoming popular on the grey market. Lawrence Yeung Kwan of the …
On October 1, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev tweeted, “Received the Civic Chamber’s appeal over the Pavlov Experimental Station. Gave the instruction for the issue to be scrutinised.” The president was responding to a Twitter campaign to save the world’s oldest seed bank. The fate of Pavlov Experimental Station appeared to …
The Western media often uses words like “secretive” and “iron curtain” for North Korea. On August 12, Pyongyang tried to change that image. It created a Twitter account, @uriminzok, meaning “our people”. It has over 4,500 followers. The move follows the launch of a North Korean YouTube channel, JucheKorea, in …
In recent times, critics have questioned the Internet's utility. The net Luddities range from those who berate it for being an emporium of pornography to those who question the worldwide web's all pervasive influence on modern life. Nicholas Carr is among those who raise significant questions while criticising the Internet. …
In a match that pitted video game players against a computer programme, the gamers outperformed the software in figuring out how 10 proteins fold into their three-dimensional configurations. Proteins are essentially biological nano-machines that carry out myriad functions in the body. The biologists have long sought to understand how the …
ALMOST all civilisations hold insects as an important element within their cultures. Scarab beetles were central religious artifacts within Egyptian culture. The Chinese viewed cicadas as a symbol of birth or immortality, the San of the Kalahari believe the praying mantis represents creation and patience, and the Greeks also created …
Amore-than-a-centuryold Brazilian daily has become the latest in the long line of newspapers that will only have an Internet edition. From September 1, Jornal do Brasil will discontinue its print edition, Nelson Ta nure, the owner of the 119-year-old newspaper, said on Wednesday. Published from Rio de Janeiro, the once-influential …
In recent times, the social networking site, Facebook, has been dogged by allegations of privacy violations. David Kirkpatrick’s The Facebook Effect does not take issues with these accusations. It is at its best in describing the genesis of the site. For most part the book is a celebratory account. In …
July 1, 2010 is very likely to be a landmark date in Internet history. On that day Finland became the first country to make broadband a legal right for every citizen. Every Finn will have the right to access to a 1Mbps (megabit per second) broadband connection. The country’s government …
THE creator of this site thinks that the recent question marks on the Teflon frying pan are an opportunity to find a plasticless alternative. Martin Higgins from Malta is a fan of cast iron cookware. Steel fabrication, he says, also has an environmental cost, but buying one steel frying pan …
WANT to arm yourself with convincing arguments against dams? Get drawn by the persuasion of canoeists and conser - vationists. Check out this flash based website that demonstrates how dams impede flow and damage the ecology of river basins. It is created by Hydropower Reform Coalition, an anti-dam lobby founded …
With the advent of "World Wide Web", the Cyberspace has spread its tenatacles throughout the globe bringing in its wake highly controversial issues. Despite advantages of this matrix of immense utility, the Internet poses potential threat to the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) of incurring liability for no fault of theirs.
