Yep, those bloody pirates have struck again! But the British police were right to save the day as they conducted a dawn raid in Cardiff, Welsh and arrested three people suspected of involvement in Internet-based music and film piracy rings. Two men (one of which is the ring leader) and a woman were said to be part of the biggest suppliers of pirated music and films in Britain, earning about 3,000 pounds (6,173 $) a month. Now I understand how these cyber thieves find the piracy business a lucrative one. Too bad it�s considered illegal and unethical. But piracy is not going to end unless people stop buying from them. Just some food for thought, folks.

Source: Reuters

I don�t think this post can cover a lot of the improvements made on Firefox 3 Beta 1. I guess the delays are sure worth it. Now let�s get down to the good stuff:

Fixes of 11,000 plus bugs
Change of 2 million lines of code
One-click info button to get site (ownership and identity) info
Automatically disables older insecure versions of plug-ins
Workability on Microsoft Windows Vista parental controls
Resumption of downloads
Ability to save tabs
Places bookmarking engine with Smart Places Folder for further organization of bookmarks
Browser speed increases
XPCOM Tool that reduces memory leakage
And more!

Source: Internetnews.com

We can now watch most shows over the web through streaming media and you have to wonder if the TV cable companies are alarmed by this development. Cable TV is losing some of its subscribers thanks to online access to shows and with that in mind, their usual subscription rates may soon become passé.

One thing that cable has going for its self is that it still has the clarity and stability of signals that make them preferred. But technology has its way of improving fast so cable companies better have something better up their sleeves soon!

(Source) Foxbusiness

As a whole, the kids of today should feel lucky that they have the benefits of the Internet to use in terms of research and doing their lessons. It makes easier for them rather than hitting the books or looking for relevant lessons in the daily paper.

The weird thing is that kids today even have to get the help of tutors which should not be the case. Perhaps education is lifting the level a notch but it should not be an excuse. With that in mind, is the Internet good for education or just for games and entertainment for kids today?

At first, you would think that Facebook is no other than another social networking website which only targets subscribers and copy the concept of Friendster and MySpace. While these were the preliminary assessments, Facebook is now an obvious leader thanks to the applications that it has added to the fray, making people log on to play with them rather than pay attention to meeting new people.

Games and quizzes have been added to be integrated with Facebook and many people are getting hooked on to them. The best part of it is that they were not developed by Facebook but independently. The ease of integration has become profitable for Facebook, something other social networking sites failed to consider.

Even if most of the world today are tightening their belts, advertising online has surprising been least affected by all of it. You may think that due to these issues, online advertising may have taken a nosedive but apparently has not significantly done so.

The Internet offers a wider scope of the market potential for businesses. Apparently, this is composed mostly of techie freaks and people who love technology. While most businesses who have been witnessing the hard times in real life are trying to cut down their marketing support costs, Internet advertising is still alive and well and continuing it success in promoting business products and services.

Four of the top newspaper companies in the country have teamed-up and invested in ad network, quadrantONE. The New York Times Company, Gannett, Hearst Corp. and the Tribune Company will work on offering a more effective and more attractive package for advertisers that target a wider public audience. The four companies will launch a coordinated advertising sales network by pooling together their inventories to offer a more attractive package for advertisers looking to reach a national audience.

SOURCE: Internetnews

I adore Grammar Girl ! It�s a great podcast site for amateur and professional writers. Grammar Girl, which is created by writer and entrepreneur, Mignon Fogarty, offers short, simple, and easy-to-listen to tips regarding grammar and writing. Personally, I love three things about Grammar Girl. One, it offers advice without sounding preachy and condescending. Two, there are transcripts available for every episode. Three, the layout is warm and trendy so that it appeals to browsers of both sexes and varying ages.

I guess most people agree with me since this podcast has also received the following awards:

2007 Winner Best Education Podcast � Podcast Awards
2007 Winner Favorite Audio Program � Podcast Peer Awards
2006 Winner Best Education Podcast � Podcast Peer Awards

The social internet is still in total flux with them growing in terms of member numbers that have swelled immensely, the winner of dominance still remains to be seen as they grow by leaps and bounds day after day. People have been scooping up social site memberships by the thousands with Facebook still at the helm with more members mainly due to it’s roots in the America’s. There are a lot more social sites all over the world, each with their own local favorites like Google’s Orkut, China’s QQ and more. Read more