Dotcom World-29: "Monitoring Internet Use"

As a step in modernising surveilance tactics to check the alarming rise of crime, terrorism and other evils, UK Govt plans to demand communication services like internet service providers and mobile service providers to record all internet contacts like email, phone calls and other internet usage like visits to social network sites.

Courtesy: BBC News
Grateful thanks to BBC News.

Computer World-20: "500 GB Optical Disc!"

The multinational, General Electric, has made a breakthrough in disk storage. It has come up with a optical disc or micro-holographic disc with storage capacity of 500 GB! That is one optical disc equivalent to 100 DVDs. At present, Blu-ray discs store data in three-dimensional form and have capacity of 25 GB and 50 GB. Blu-ray discs have dramatically changed viewing movies at home with their high-definition quality. I eagerly await the arrival of these micro-holographic discs in the market and would like to see what other advantages they have over other discs.

Kudos to the General Electric team who have achieved this breakthrough.

Source: BBC News
Grateful thanks to BBC.

How To-67: "How to Download Safely"

How to Download Safely

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

The internet is a dangerous place, filled with all kinds of malicious software. In this article, proper web safety is discussed as well as techniques for ensuring protection of your computer.

Steps

1. Be sure you're on a reputable site. Look at the URL bar on the top of the browser window, and be sure that the address displayed coincides with the page that you're on. Pay close attention to the beginning of the address, the part between the http:// and the .com/.org/.edu. If the name matches the page, you may be safe.
   
2. Check the file you recieve is not an exe file, if you are downloading music or images
   
3. Use a spyware/malware detection program, such as Windows Defender or McAfee Site Advisor. If you do happen to download something that is unsafe, a program such as this will help identify it and possibly aid in its removal.
   
4. Use common sense. If a program has features that seem too good to be true, chances are, they are. One of the most prominent examples today are the Myspace Trackers that keep popping up everywhere. Things that seem like they wouldn't work probably don't.

Tips

• Open source systems like Linux or BSD aren't prone to viruses, so downloading should be safe.

Warnings

• No one method will protect you from all unsafe downloads; new ways to deceive users are developed all of the time.
  
• Viruses are always a risk you take when downloading a program, file, or anything else from the internet.

Related wikiHows

• How to Avoid Getting a Computer Virus or Worm on Your Windows PC
  
• How to Remove a Boot Sector Virus
  
• How to Prevent Viruses, Spyware, and Adware with Avast and CounterSpy
  
• How to Rid Your Computer of Adware, Spyware and Viruses
  
• How to Accelerate Downloading

Sources and Citations

• Windows Defender
  
• McAfee Site Advisor
  
• MyWOT (Web of Trust)

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Download Safely. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How To-66: "How to Accelerate Downloading"

How to Accelerate Downloading

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Many times it takes a very long time to download from another site. You can easily accelerate your downloads by following the directions.

Steps

1. Close any Internet using programs you do not need, so close any kind of P2P program (unless this is how you're downloading); Internet browser; streaming media; messengers; and games like WOW, America's Army, or any other multiplayer online games. This will increase the available incoming traffic you have.
   
2. Make sure your firewalls are not blocking the program and that the port is open. (See below.)
   
3. Get a download manager. Some of them are actually faster than the download speed you see when using Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox (see below for a good download manager).
   
4. Get a faster internet connection.

Tips

• This tip does not apply if you are running single computer over a network connection.
  
• If someone else on your network is doing a massive download, or similar to above they will affect your speed as well. Kindly ask them to stop, pause, or slowdown/limit there downloading. (Or just wait until they are done.)
  
• Also, keep in mind that downloading from servers near you is generally faster but not always. If you are in prime hours in your area, look for a mirror server farther away where most people are likely to be asleep. The server loads will usually be less and your downloads faster.

Warnings

• If you do not have permission to unblock ports then don't!
  
• All websites have upload speeds governed by their providers. Don't expect to get 500mb/s from a site whose max upload is only 300kb/s, as you will only get its max upload speed at best. So don't call your ISP due to slow downloads if it is the fault of the site you're downloading from, because your ISP doesn't have control over that.

Things You'll Need

• Admin access to the router if needed
  
• Computer
  
• Internet connection
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Set up Port Forwarding on a Router
  
• How to Optimize Soulseek for Downloading Music
  
• How to Download Safely
  
• How to Download Winamp for Mac
  

Sources and Citations

• http://www.freedownloadmanager.org

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Accelerate Downloading. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Free Online Tutorials-4: "INTERNET BEGINNER'S GUIDES & TUTORIALS"

Refdesk's Internet Beginner's Guides and Tutorials page provides links to selected 25 sites which are very useful and comprehensive and a boon not only to beginners and others also. If you are curious, you can see for yourself.

To view the page:

http://www.refdesk.com/factbeg.html

Grateful thanks to Refdesk.com.

TED Talk-3: "BumpTop desktop is a beautiful mess" by Anand Agarawala

Detailed Wikipedia article on TED Talks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TED_Talks

Grateful thanks to TED.com, Anand Agarawala and Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.