Technology News

Petabyte in a Nanosecond

Source: All About Jazz
July 7, 2008

A Petabyte is approximately 1,000 Terabytes or one million Gigabytes. It's hard to visualize what a Petabyte could hold.

1 Petabyte could hold approximately 20 million 4-door filing cabinets full of text. It could hold 500 billion pages of standard printed text. It would take about 500 million floppy disks to store the same amount of data.

1 bit: a binary decision 1 byte: a character 5 Megabytes: The complete works of Shakespeare 2 ...

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Service Providers Determine What's Free Speech

Source: All About Jazz
July 7, 2008

Does free speech still apply on the Internet of private servers?

Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally won't eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative. Say it on the Internet, and you'll find that free speech and other constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed. Companies in charge of seemingly public spaces online wipe out content that's controversial but otherwise legal. Service providers write their own rules for users worldwide and set ...

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The Petabyte Age End of Theory

Source: All About Jazz
July 7, 2008

The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete. Because More Isn't Just More -- More Is Different

There's no reason to cling to our old ways. It's time to ask: What can science learn from Google?

Sensors everywhere. Infinite storage. Clouds of processors. Our ability to capture, warehouse, and understand massive amounts of data is changing science, medicine, business, and technology. As our collection of facts and figures grows, so will the opportunity to find answers to fundamental questions. Because ...

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Firefox 3 Share Shoots Up

Source: PC Magazine
July 4, 2008

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Leaf Develops Peer-to-Peer App for Facebook

Source: PC Magazine
July 4, 2008

Leaf Networks has developed what it calls the first peer-to-peer application for Facebook. LeafWeb is a Facebook application that allows users to invite others from their Facebook profile to play games on their own PC, via the virtual LAN service that Leaf's peer-to-peer services offers, which were first launched last year. Leaf also plans a second application that lets users share their videos without uploading, although their PCs will have to be on to allow the application to run, according ...

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Viacom Will Know What You've Watched on Youtube

Source: PC Magazine
July 4, 2008

Should Viacom be privy to the fact that you've watched “Cat Playing Piano" 57 times on YouTube since March? Yes, according to the U.S. District Court for Southern New York. Judge Louis Stanton on Wednesday ruled that Google must provide Viacom with YouTube user histories in Viacom's ongoing $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the video Web site. Google must hand over all the information contained in its logging database, including the login ID of the users who have watched ...

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The Times They Are a Changing

Source: Michael Ricci
July 3, 2008

Los Angeles Times to cut 250 jobs, including 150 from news staff The newspaper cites falling ad revenue in economic slowdown.

The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday announced plans to cut 250 positions across the company, including 150 positions in editorial, in a new effort to bring expenses into line with declining revenue. In a further cost-cutting step, the newspaper will reduce the number of pages it publishes each week by 15%. “You all know the paradox we find ourselves ...

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Update: Rhapsody DRM-Free Music Targets iTunes

Source: PC Magazine
July 1, 2008

Online music store Rhapsody is going up against iTunes with the Monday launch of a $50 million initiative that will provide DRM-free downloads, and the availability of Rhapsody content on Verizon V Cast phones and Web sites like Yahoo Music, MTV.com, and iLike. Rhapsody, owned by RealNetworks, launched the offering, dubbed Music Without Limits, in conjunction with MTV Networks in an effort to “turbocharge the digital music industry," according to Real. Rhapsody's digital music store will offer DRM-free MP3 tracks ...

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