Widespread internet inavailability in East Asia

Posted by multippt

It looks like the earthquake (a massive 7.1 on the Richter scale) which occurred in Taiwan on the 26th of December, 2006, at 8.26pm seems to have triggered some disturbance in some underground cables. While the earthquake fortunately trigger a tsunami (Thank goodness, we wouldn’t want history to repeat itself again too soon. Its already bad enough that a massive tsunami took place on this day two years ago.), it did some how manage to disrupt the normal bandwidth that the people in East Asia get. During such a moment, the download speeds plummet such that it is a hassle to view a web page.

This situation happens to be the worst technology-related disaster in Asia. The scale of the damage is so large that it damaged six undersea cables, leaving only one to carry the internet flow. Internet accessibility to sites from countries such as the United States is poor, since the cables to the country is severely damaged. The damage also showed the region’s dependence on the telecommunication services for businesses. Fortunately, this incident occurred during the period where business is relatively less active (due to public holidays such as Christmas) compared to the other times of the year.
The undersea cables should be fixed in 2 weeks time (probably by 2007). During this time however, this site would be effected, since the administrators are in the affected area (Singapore, East Asia). So there may not be much content being posted here until the problem eases.

Microsoft starts explaining its RSS feed reader patent

Posted by multippt

A few days ago, Microsoft attempted to patent RSS (really simple syndication) feed readers. RSS feeds are used as a means by news publishers and bloggers to notify subscribers of the RSS feed of new content. Readers are needed to display the feeds.

Dave Winer, the co-inventor of the RSS feed system, commented on the patent, stating that it is likely that Microsoft would attempt to make money out of RSS if the patent were approved. Several bloggers criticised the patent applications by Microsoft as being unoriginal. Although Microsoft’s patent claim is questionable, some feel that there is no need to go against Microsoft, since its possible that Microsoft has good intentions to do such action.

Microsoft’s RSS team responded to responses of Microsoft’s patent on RSS. The team claimed that the patent is used to describe ways to improve the RSS end-user and developer experience. The patent does not mean that Microsoft is claiming that they invented the RSS feed system. The patent is also intended for the benefit of (RSS) feed publishers, developers and users, and that it is proof of Microsoft’s commitment and contributions to the RSS community.  In addition, the team stated that other companies such as Apple and Google have patented in a fashion similar to what Microsoft is doing.

Via Microsoft Team RSS blog

Firefox 2.0.0.1 released

Posted by multippt

Mozilla recently released the latest version of its award-winning Firefox application. Firefox is a free web browser that can be used as an alternative to the web browser preinstalled in your computer. This update can be downloaded by the application (or software) manually by clicking “check for updates” in the “help” menu in the menubar.

This update adds the following features:
-Several security vulnerabilities patched
-Improved support for Windows Vista.

Apparently, it still have some problems associated with running Firefox on Windows Vista.

Blogger beta now out of beta

Posted by multippt

The long anticipated blogger beta has finally come out of beta status. Bloggers using the old version of blogger can now switch over to the new one more easily. (Not to mention, easier creation of Google accounts). The new version of blogger is designed to make blogging and managing of one’s blog as easy as possible. Now, its easy to customize templates without going through all that special blog code. In addition, those hardcore blog customizers get more control over the blog, since Google decided to add more tags to the palette of blog tags.

The transfer of old blogs to the new version of blogger is permanent. The only blogs not upgraded are the ones connected to old blogger accounts (not ungraded yet), and this usually applies to team blogs. Team blogs are only upgraded when all members of the team blog upgrade their accounts as well. However, you still get to enjoy what the old blogger has, since the new version of blogger still retains most (probably all) of the features the old blogger had. Private blogs are also possible. Support for RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 is improved. Also, blog publishing (usually associated with blog posts in the old blogger) is improved. There is a smaller wait time (you do not get to see the “publishing…” spiner), since changes to the blog (including layout) are made immediately and will go “live” instantly.

The most obvious improvement over the older version of blogger is the new dashboard. The dashboard is now more organised. You can access more options straight from the dashboard.

Via Blogger

Digg takes on a new look, and passes XHTML 1.0 validation test!

Posted by multippt

Digg now takes on a new look, which is admitably stylish and extremely neat. The best part is… it passes the xhtml validation test, something most (simpler) websites do not even pass (including this one, but we’re working on it). This is an amazing feat for one of the largest social sites on the internet.

Kudos to digg.

Multiple hosting services unavailable: Coincidence?

Posted by multippt

Its kind of unusual that multiple free hosting services are suddenly unavailable, just because their domains got put into lockdown statuses by their domain registrar.

There are quite a few hosting sites that have suddenly become unavailable:
-110mb.com*
-awardspace.com
-addyour.net
-1111mb.com**
-Alot more…

*The hosting service has unlocked/resolved the domain
**The hosting service decided to park the domain at the moment

Well, all these might have been coincidence, or might have been due to people misusing the hosting services.

Microsoft’s newly designed homepage

Posted by multippt

Yesterday, Microsoft launched a new home page, that probably incorporates months of research and customer feedback and adjustments. The design in my own opinion is quite clean and “vista”-like, probably in reference to the upcoming Windows Vista operating system.

Via Microsoft