November 2009
Monday, 23. November 2009, 12:13:33
Opera
I've just updated Opera to 10.10 version.
Finally they embedded
Opera Unite in the core browser and since it is there I gave it another close look.
It works, it is a nice gadget but I can't think of much practical use for it. Any idea?
BTW, if somebody needs help with Unite, just ask.
Sunday, 22. November 2009, 14:52:29
life
Friday, 20. November 2009, 13:13:38
life, Internet
1. Skype (the company) has been sold for 2 billion USD to a group of investors among which there a private equity Silver Lake, Joltid Limited, Andreessen Horowitz and Canada Pension Plan Investment. In the past I've seen those acquisitions lead soon or later to an involution of the original company, like the owners/founders want to get money and run away before it is too late. We will see if it is the case of Skype.
2.Chrome OS from Google has been officially presented yesterday.
Here you find the description:
http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/software-architectureTo me it looks like a simplified Linux distro aimed to people who use some sort of "mobile" device like the "netbooks" and who use it to be always on the Internet and accomplish "Internet-related" tasks. Being Open Source software, it will be extensible but also "fork-able" in any possible way.
Wednesday, 18. November 2009, 18:49:20
software, windows, Internet
Can somebody suggest a free HTML editor that is still under development?
This is one of the reasons why I am pessimistic about the future of the Web.
Less and less software is available.
Wednesday, 18. November 2009, 10:12:50
Internet, life
In case somebody is interested in more details about "*DSL" Internet connections, here are two links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdslThis explains why my line is so asymmetric.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_high_bitrate_digital_subscriber_lineThis is what I would like to have instead.
Now, the limitations about your Internet connection come mostly from the underlying business model. On one side there are the costs for upgrading the traditional "copper" phone line network with new local "nodes", on the other side there is the money that comes from the subscriptions. I don't think any "private" ISP can make money providing Internet connections across the whole country so probably the only option is to consider it as a public service. But even in urban areas where it could be possible for "private" ISPs, the problem is to define what "minimum service level" MUST be granted. And again this leads us to the old question "what the Internet is good for".
Tuesday, 17. November 2009, 08:23:01
Internet
This morning around 8.20 I made some tests with
Speedtest on my Internet connection, that comes from the main Italian provider, Telecom Italia, and should be an ADSL line for 7Mbps in download and 0.38Mbs in upload. Here are the results (single pass for each location).
| Milano |
Vicenza |
Roma |
Paris |
ping 67
downlod 6.48
upload 0.23 |
ping 68
download 10.40
upload 0.33 |
ping 77
download 16.13
upload 0.39 |
ping 157
download 15.10
upload 0.27 |
| London |
New York |
San Francisco |
Tokio |
ping 161
download 8.90
upload 0.39 |
ping 168
download 17.22
upload 0.22 |
ping 240
download 6.80
upload 0.34 |
ping 366
download 4.11
upload 0.19 |
You can see the line is too asymmetric (20:1 - DL:UL ratio) and basically I don't use all that download bandwidth while I am very limited by low upload. This is the lower service available, otherwise I would subscribe one even lower. Another bad thing about it is when everybody is up and connected the network tends to collapse and you either lose the connection or the performance degrade badly.
On a side note: the italian government is discussing about financing the "broadband Internet" in rural areas currently not covered by the ISPs with at least 800 million euros. IMHO that is just a gift to the ISPs that currently do what ever they want with their customers.
Sunday, 15. November 2009, 12:35:58
life
Besides the fact that they don't know the
bidet, the English seem to have strange ideas about saving water by not flushing the toilet. Some of the proposed tricks are stuff like pissing in the shower, pissing in the garden (it also helps the making of fertilizer it seems), waiting till everybody has pissed before flushing and stuff like that. Last time I checked it looked like England did not have much problems with shortage of water so it sounds a bit weird from here.
Thursday, 12. November 2009, 11:22:20
life
Me Myself and I
November 2009January 2010
WIDGETIZE