Is this even possible? According to The Business Roundtable which is an association of CEO�s of established US companies, the threat is �urgent and real.� The breakdown of such critical information infrastructure has a 10 to 20% chance of happening in the next ten years. This can be a result of many incidences. It can be natural such as calamities or even man-made disasters such as malicious codes, code errors, or terrorist attacks.

The group also stated that an Internet meltdown, if it would ever happen, will result in reduced productivity. Profits will fall as well as stock prices. Consumer spending will erode and a liquidity crisis has a big possibility of happening. This was also discussed in �Growing Business Dependence on the Internet � New Risks Require CEO Action� � a Business Roundtable report based on earlier risk analyses done by the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

Source: ComputerWorld

Thanks to gamers from all over and l33t-speak (that�s hacker language for the laymen out there) shout — “w00t!” — has just been named as the “Word of the Year” by the Merriam-Webster Online Web Site. According to the Merriam-Webster Web site, the word �w00t!� (spelled with two zero�s instead of two letter O�s) is an acronym for �We owned the other team,� but is mainly used as an interjection to express joy, most especially in the case of triumph.

Such as other coded languages, l33t-speak was developed for exclusivity so as to make it harder to detect hackers� online conversations. And as the nature of speakers of coded languages, despite the popularity of “w00t!,� I�m sure that these guys have moved on and have coined another term to substitute for it. But I�m sure that whatever that new term is, it would eventually get out of its exclusivity and may even be the next catch phrase of 2008.

Source: Yahoo! News

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?

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

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

China has announced a mandatory measure that would have all computers sold in the country to get software installed that would filter the internet locally which is not surprising for they have been monitoring and screening the internet for quite sometime. China has long been blocking access to the many social and news web sites in what they say is a measure that upholds the law, something the rest of the world sees as a continuing repression of the right to information. Read more