Bangladesh has blocked social networking website Facebook over caricatures of Prophet Mohammed and “obnoxious” images of the Muslim-majority country's leaders, an official said on Sunday.
The move came after Pakistan banned access to Facebook, video website YouTube and 1,200 web pages over a row about “blasphemous” content on the Internet.
Facebook was blocked in Bangladesh late on Saturday, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said.
The move was ordered as cartoons of the Mohammed on the popular website “hurt the religious sentiments of the country's Muslim population,” said BTRC acting chairman Hasan Mahmud Delwar.
“Some links in the website also contained obnoxious images of our leaders, including the father of the nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and the leader of the Opposition.” He said Facebook would be re-opened once Bangladesh had permanently blocked the offending pages.
The country's anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said it had arrested one man over the images of political leaders. “A special intelligence team arrested him and he has been charged with spreading malice,” senior RAB official Enamul Kabir said.
He said the arrested man used at least six Facebook accounts to post the images, but officials declined to give details of the depictions, which were not immediately showing up on the site on Sunday.
On Friday, thousands of Bangladeshis took to the streets of the capital Dhaka, demanding that the government ban Facebook over what they called “anti-Islamic propaganda.”
The protests were triggered by an “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” campaign on Facebook, which its anonymous promoters said was in defence of the freedom of expression. Muslims regard all depictions of Islam's founding prophet as blasphemous. “Drawing caricatures of Prophet Mohammed is an attack on Islam and extremely humiliating for Islam,” Dhaka protest organiser A.T.M. Hemayet Uddin told thousands of cheering supporters.
In a counter-demonstration, Dhaka University students held a rally on the campus late on Saturday, urging authorities to lift the Facebook block immediately, according to the Daily Star.
Pakistan has restored access to YouTube, but Facebook and 1,200 web pages remain blocked.
Last year, Bangladesh also blocked YouTube for several days after the website hosted a recording of an angry dispute between Ms. Hasina and Army officers over a deadly military mutiny.
Bangladesh has nearly one million Facebook account holders — a sixth of all Internet users, according to the BTRC. Ms. Hasina and Opposition leader Khaleda Zia have fan pages on Facebook.
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Monday, May 31, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
BlackBerry unveils new Bold and Pearl smartphones
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) on Monday launched another smartphone -- called BlackBerry Bold 9650 -- to add another device to its premier Bold brand.
The company also unveiled the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, its smallest smartphone yet.
“The new BlackBerry Bold 9650 is an extraordinary smartphone that we think customers will love,” said RIM president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. “Whether at work or at play, the new BlackBerry Bold 9650 offers a truly impressive communications, multimedia and connectivity experience,” he said at the launch of the latest smartphones.
About the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, he said, “The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is unlike any other smartphone in the world and we expect a broad range of new and existing customers will be drawn to its powerful features and compact design.”
Beside a keyboard, optical trackpad and built-in Wi-Fi, the new smartphone also allows users to talk on the phone while browsing the web or sending and receiving email.
Loaded with 512 MB Flash memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB microSDHC cards, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 smartphone supports 3G networks.
Built in stylish design with glossy black finish and chrome highlights, the new device features large high-resolution display which allows pictures, videos and web pages with great contrast and detail, the RIM statement said.
Apart from a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, zoom, image stabilization, autofocus and video recording, the new BlackBerry Bold also features advanced media player for videos, pictures and music, a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and support for Bluetooth.
The new BlackBerry Pearl 3G measures less than two inches wide and weighs only 93g. It also features an optical trackpad for smooth navigation, a 3.2 MP camera with flash for quality pictures, and support for up to 32 GB of personal content.
Both the new devices will support mobile applications built by third parties for RIM and carry built-in GPS with support for geo-tagging, BlackBerry Maps and other mapping applications.
“The BlackBerry Bold 9650 fuses form and function in a striking design and, in addition to providing premium phone and multimedia features, it of course delivers the industry’s leading mobile solution for email, messaging (IM, SMS, MMS) and social networking,” the company said in its statement.
The company also unveiled the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, its smallest smartphone yet.
“The new BlackBerry Bold 9650 is an extraordinary smartphone that we think customers will love,” said RIM president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. “Whether at work or at play, the new BlackBerry Bold 9650 offers a truly impressive communications, multimedia and connectivity experience,” he said at the launch of the latest smartphones.
About the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, he said, “The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is unlike any other smartphone in the world and we expect a broad range of new and existing customers will be drawn to its powerful features and compact design.”
Beside a keyboard, optical trackpad and built-in Wi-Fi, the new smartphone also allows users to talk on the phone while browsing the web or sending and receiving email.
Loaded with 512 MB Flash memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB microSDHC cards, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 smartphone supports 3G networks.
Built in stylish design with glossy black finish and chrome highlights, the new device features large high-resolution display which allows pictures, videos and web pages with great contrast and detail, the RIM statement said.
Apart from a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, zoom, image stabilization, autofocus and video recording, the new BlackBerry Bold also features advanced media player for videos, pictures and music, a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and support for Bluetooth.
The new BlackBerry Pearl 3G measures less than two inches wide and weighs only 93g. It also features an optical trackpad for smooth navigation, a 3.2 MP camera with flash for quality pictures, and support for up to 32 GB of personal content.
Both the new devices will support mobile applications built by third parties for RIM and carry built-in GPS with support for geo-tagging, BlackBerry Maps and other mapping applications.
“The BlackBerry Bold 9650 fuses form and function in a striking design and, in addition to providing premium phone and multimedia features, it of course delivers the industry’s leading mobile solution for email, messaging (IM, SMS, MMS) and social networking,” the company said in its statement.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Now see 3D movies without glasses
The huge success of 3D movies like “Avatar”, “Clash of the Titans” and “Alice in Wonderland” has led scientists to explore possibilities of developing 3D technology that does not require glasses. Japanese companies supplying 3D technology and services to Hollywood production houses have said they hope to see their goods having an impact on people’s day-to-day lives within the next few years, and that further development in the technology will lower prices and makes the experience affordable for commoners, Xinhua reported on Saturday.
However, before that happens, there are still a few problems that need to be solved. A ‘glasses-free’ 3D technology produced by a Japanese company has induced headaches, even if they were impressive.
The latest technology sends different signals to each eye, creating the illusion of 3D images, and a company representative has argued that future developments will lead to sharper images and less eye fatigue. “In may be five years, when the technology has further advanced and the price of the hardware has become more affordable, I think you will see 3D sets in households,” Kazuo Kaneyama was quoted as saying.
At present, the technology boasts of a 65-inch set at around 3 million yen ($32,000) - about three times more than the price of a 2D television of the same size.
There are also problems for people with visual impairment. If one eye is stronger than the other, then the 3D image will suffer.
“People with visual impairment will not be able to enjoy 3D using this technology,” Kaneyama said. Over the next few years, television sets are likely to be installed at exhibitions, department stores and on streets that grab our attention like never before, with the images seeming to jump out of the screens and at passers-by.
“I believe 3D is just around the corner,” said Kiyoto Kanda, representative of another company. “Photo frames that use the technology are already available at an affordable price, and other equipment is going to get cheaper in the near future.” With Hollywood already beginning to invest in fully developing 3D entertainment, opportunities to test out the new way of watching movies, sport and other programmes are likely to increase.
In Britain, a recent football game between Manchester United and Chelsea was made available in 3D. Though these experiments have used the glasses technology, people have not looked favourably at the idea of wearing uncomfortable glasses for two or more hours at a time, opening up huge potential for companies offering glasses-free technology.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Recovering disk space in Windows
Large hard drives may be plentiful these days, but you can still face storage constraints.
You could be coping with a small hard drive provided by your company. Or maybe you’re trying to squeeze some life out of an older hard drive that you aren’t ready to upgrade.
Those splurging on today’s fast solid state drives (SSDs) are pleased with their performance, but must constantly worry about running out of disk space, as SSDs have a lower capacity than traditional drives.
Bottom line: it’s still important to know how to recover some disk space, while retaining the applications that you need. Here’s a checklist of how to proceed.
** What’s eating your drive? You cannot begin to know how to recover hard-drive space until you can get an overview of which files and folders are occupying the most space.
Windows doesn’t give you any built-in tools for seeing, at a glance, just how large some folders are relative to others. Luckily, you can turn to the free FolderSize (http://sourceforge.net/projects/foldersize).
Install this open source program and your Windows Explorer file manager will be enhanced with a “folder size” option in the file and folder display area. Just click on a drive, and right-click one of the column headings in the file pane (name, date modified, type, etc.).
There, in the right-click menu, you’ll see a folder size option.
Select it and a new folder size column appears. In it, Windows will calculate and display the total size of the folders on your hard drive. Double-click a folder to drill one level down, activate folder size, and you’ll see the sizes of the subfolders.
You can use this tool to quickly hone in on disk—eating files and folders. Without it, you’re largely left guessing about where all of your disk space has gone. Once you’ve located the problem areas on your hard drive, you can determine how to proceed.
** Delete hibernate files When Windows is set up to hibernate, it creates a hidden file called Hiberfil.sys that’s large enough to hold the contents of installed memory. That means the file could be big -- multiple gigabytes -- and therefore consume extra disk space that you might need for other purposes.
To get rid of the file and free up disk space, you’ll need to turn the hibernation feature in Windows off. To do so in Vista or Windows 7, open the Start menu and type “power options.” Select the Power Options entry.
In the resulting Select a Power Plan dialog box, click “Change plan settings” for the currently selected power plan. In the next dialog box, click “Change advanced power settings.” From the Power Option dialog box that appears, expand the Sleep entry, followed by the Hibernate entry, and then change the Hibernate setting to “Never.” Click OK. Windows will delete the Hiberfil.sys, and you should notice considerably more disk space almost immediately.
** Delete internet files The temporary internet files folder can start to overflow with thousands of tiny files, easily sapping multiple gigabytes on your main drive.
It’s easiest to use the Windows Disk Cleanup utility, which is included with every copy of Windows, to delete these. The added benefit is that you can use the tool to delete other types of files as well.
Open the Start menu and type “disk cleanup.” Click the first entry you see, which will start the Disk Cleanup wizard. Select the drive you wish to clean, and in the following dialog box, you’ll be able to select the types of files you want to remove. Temporary internet files will be among them.
** Restrain the Recycle Bin If you find yourself deleting files constantly in an attempt to conserve drive space, but feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle, the problem could be that the Windows Recycle Bin is reserving too much space for keeping track of deleted files. Right-click the Recycle Bin and select Properties to remedy the situation.
In the Recycle Bin Properties dialog box, you can do two important things: determine the maximum amount of disk space per drive that is reserved for tracking deletions and establish whether to have the Recycle Bin active on a particular drive. Adjust or disable the Recycle Bin on a per—drive basis, and you should see and retain more usable disk space.
** More obvious choices There are plenty of other ways you can free up disk space. For instance, move your data files to another drive or partition.
Segregating your files by type is a wise move anyway, since you’ll then be able to back up just certain types of files with ease.
Also, you might want to consider employing Windows’ little-used disk and file compression feature. It’s available only at the drive level.
To use it, right-click your C drive (or another drive, if appropriate) and click Properties from the pop-up menu. On the General tab in the resulting Properties dialog box, select the option labelled “Compress this drive to save disk space.” From that point forward, Windows will use compression techniques to reduce the amount of disk space that files require. The downside will be some extra processing overhead, but on fast machines this should not result in much of a performance hit.
You can also use a free tool such as 7-Zip (http://www.7—zip.org) to compress individual files or folders. This approach to increasing disk space works best when you have a lot of highly compressible files on your drive.
Some types of files, such as those created by standard office applications, are good candidates for file-level compression. Other types such as jpg images, which are already compressed, will not benefit much from additional compression.
You could be coping with a small hard drive provided by your company. Or maybe you’re trying to squeeze some life out of an older hard drive that you aren’t ready to upgrade.
Those splurging on today’s fast solid state drives (SSDs) are pleased with their performance, but must constantly worry about running out of disk space, as SSDs have a lower capacity than traditional drives.
Bottom line: it’s still important to know how to recover some disk space, while retaining the applications that you need. Here’s a checklist of how to proceed.
** What’s eating your drive? You cannot begin to know how to recover hard-drive space until you can get an overview of which files and folders are occupying the most space.
Windows doesn’t give you any built-in tools for seeing, at a glance, just how large some folders are relative to others. Luckily, you can turn to the free FolderSize (http://sourceforge.net/projects/foldersize).
Install this open source program and your Windows Explorer file manager will be enhanced with a “folder size” option in the file and folder display area. Just click on a drive, and right-click one of the column headings in the file pane (name, date modified, type, etc.).
There, in the right-click menu, you’ll see a folder size option.
Select it and a new folder size column appears. In it, Windows will calculate and display the total size of the folders on your hard drive. Double-click a folder to drill one level down, activate folder size, and you’ll see the sizes of the subfolders.
You can use this tool to quickly hone in on disk—eating files and folders. Without it, you’re largely left guessing about where all of your disk space has gone. Once you’ve located the problem areas on your hard drive, you can determine how to proceed.
** Delete hibernate files When Windows is set up to hibernate, it creates a hidden file called Hiberfil.sys that’s large enough to hold the contents of installed memory. That means the file could be big -- multiple gigabytes -- and therefore consume extra disk space that you might need for other purposes.
To get rid of the file and free up disk space, you’ll need to turn the hibernation feature in Windows off. To do so in Vista or Windows 7, open the Start menu and type “power options.” Select the Power Options entry.
In the resulting Select a Power Plan dialog box, click “Change plan settings” for the currently selected power plan. In the next dialog box, click “Change advanced power settings.” From the Power Option dialog box that appears, expand the Sleep entry, followed by the Hibernate entry, and then change the Hibernate setting to “Never.” Click OK. Windows will delete the Hiberfil.sys, and you should notice considerably more disk space almost immediately.
** Delete internet files The temporary internet files folder can start to overflow with thousands of tiny files, easily sapping multiple gigabytes on your main drive.
It’s easiest to use the Windows Disk Cleanup utility, which is included with every copy of Windows, to delete these. The added benefit is that you can use the tool to delete other types of files as well.
Open the Start menu and type “disk cleanup.” Click the first entry you see, which will start the Disk Cleanup wizard. Select the drive you wish to clean, and in the following dialog box, you’ll be able to select the types of files you want to remove. Temporary internet files will be among them.
** Restrain the Recycle Bin If you find yourself deleting files constantly in an attempt to conserve drive space, but feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle, the problem could be that the Windows Recycle Bin is reserving too much space for keeping track of deleted files. Right-click the Recycle Bin and select Properties to remedy the situation.
In the Recycle Bin Properties dialog box, you can do two important things: determine the maximum amount of disk space per drive that is reserved for tracking deletions and establish whether to have the Recycle Bin active on a particular drive. Adjust or disable the Recycle Bin on a per—drive basis, and you should see and retain more usable disk space.
** More obvious choices There are plenty of other ways you can free up disk space. For instance, move your data files to another drive or partition.
Segregating your files by type is a wise move anyway, since you’ll then be able to back up just certain types of files with ease.
Also, you might want to consider employing Windows’ little-used disk and file compression feature. It’s available only at the drive level.
To use it, right-click your C drive (or another drive, if appropriate) and click Properties from the pop-up menu. On the General tab in the resulting Properties dialog box, select the option labelled “Compress this drive to save disk space.” From that point forward, Windows will use compression techniques to reduce the amount of disk space that files require. The downside will be some extra processing overhead, but on fast machines this should not result in much of a performance hit.
You can also use a free tool such as 7-Zip (http://www.7—zip.org) to compress individual files or folders. This approach to increasing disk space works best when you have a lot of highly compressible files on your drive.
Some types of files, such as those created by standard office applications, are good candidates for file-level compression. Other types such as jpg images, which are already compressed, will not benefit much from additional compression.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Gmail power tips
Google’s Gmail is arguably the most powerful and configurable of the free e-mail services out there. But most people tap just a small percentage of its features. That’s in part because a lot of what you can do with Gmail is hidden beneath the surface. The following questions involve bringing some of that functionality to light.
I have multiple Gmail accounts. Logging on to each one is time-consuming, though. Is there a quicker way to manage them?
Perhaps the quickest way is to take advantage of Gmail’s POP3 functionality to set up your Gmail accounts in a traditional e-mail client, such as Outlook, Thunderbird, or Eudora. That way, you can download all of your mail from multiple accounts at the same time and respond to them from one location.
For instructions on setting up individual mail programs to receive Gmail, open your Gmail account, and click the Settings link. From the Settings screen, click Forwarding and POP/IMAP. In the POP Download section, make sure you select one of the “enable” option buttons. And from the same section, click the “Configuration instructions” link to learn how to set up Gmail with the e-mail program you use.
Instructions for Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Windows Mail, and more are provided. There’s also instructions for iPhone users.
If you use the Firefox web browser, another option is to download and install Gmail Manager (http://bit.ly/1i3TkM), a well-regarded add-on that gives you access to multiple Gmail accounts from your browser’s status bar. With the add-on installed, you’ll be able to see what’s new in each of your Gmail accounts, and you’ll be able to respond to compose mail or respond to messages quickly.
I heard that I can use the storage space provided by Gmail to store regular files. I don’t see anything about this in Gmail. Is this possible?
Yes. The free utility Gmail Drive (http://bit.ly/33AjJ) will create a virtual drive based upon your Gmail account. Once installed, the drive will show up in Windows Explorer just like any other drive.
In Windows 7, the drive is categorised as “Other.” When you first try to access or double-click the drive, Gmail Drive prompts you for your Gmail logon credentials. Once you’re logged on, you can drag and drop files to your Gmail drive just as you can to any other.
How can I back up my Gmail?
The easiest way is to have Gmail forward a copy of all incoming messages to another e-mail account. You can use another free e-mail provider, such as Yahoo! or Microsoft if you wish.
To set up forwarding, open your Gmail account, and click Settings.
From the Settings screen, click Forwarding and POP/IMAP, and from the Forwarding section, select “Forward a copy of incoming mail.” Supply an e-mail address to which mail should be forwarded.
In addition to backing up your e-mail, this feature will also give you a way to access your e-mail when Gmail is down or inaccessible for any reason. In an age when, for many people, e-mail is crucial to getting work done, backing up in this manner is a good idea.
The main reason I don’t use Gmail is that I hate web interfaces. They’re completely mouse oriented. Is there some kind of add-on or macro program that will allow me to assign keyboard shortcuts to Gmail?
You don’t need an add-on to make Gmail keyboard friendly. All you need to do is learn and take advantage of the many built-in keyboard shortcuts available already.
For instance, log on to your Gmail account, and press the letter “c” to compose a new message. While reading a message, press “r” to reply or “a” to reply to all recipients. Press “f” to forward. Press “n” to see the next message as you’re reading the current one, and press “p” to see the previous one. To see a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, just click the Help link and type “keyboard” in the resulting search box.
Of course, you can also set up your favourite e-mail program, such as Outlook, to retrieve and send Gmail, bypassing the web interface altogether. Then you’ll have the familiar keyboard shortcuts at your disposal.
There’s a new Buzz link in my Gmail. I watched the video tutorial about Buzz and clearly have no use for it. How do I get rid of it?
Buzz, the new Twitter-like Google service that allows you and others within a defined social group to post what’s going on or what’s interesting, is getting mixed reviews — and not just from those who see no use for it, like you. Some of those who actually use it complain that the service is resource-hungry and intrusive. If you use it, its integration into Gmail means that you’re notified of a “buzz” via your Gmail inbox.
It’s easy to get rid of Buzz, though. From the Settings screen, locate and click the Buzz link among the available settings. From the “Buzz choices” section, click “Do not show Google Buzz in Gmail” and/or Disable Google Buzz.
Selecting “Do not show Google Buzz in Gmail” will simply remove the Buzz link from your Gmail. Disabling Buzz will remove any Buzz profile you’ve created as well as any posts (or buzzes) that you’ve made.
I have multiple Gmail accounts. Logging on to each one is time-consuming, though. Is there a quicker way to manage them?
Perhaps the quickest way is to take advantage of Gmail’s POP3 functionality to set up your Gmail accounts in a traditional e-mail client, such as Outlook, Thunderbird, or Eudora. That way, you can download all of your mail from multiple accounts at the same time and respond to them from one location.
For instructions on setting up individual mail programs to receive Gmail, open your Gmail account, and click the Settings link. From the Settings screen, click Forwarding and POP/IMAP. In the POP Download section, make sure you select one of the “enable” option buttons. And from the same section, click the “Configuration instructions” link to learn how to set up Gmail with the e-mail program you use.
Instructions for Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Windows Mail, and more are provided. There’s also instructions for iPhone users.
If you use the Firefox web browser, another option is to download and install Gmail Manager (http://bit.ly/1i3TkM), a well-regarded add-on that gives you access to multiple Gmail accounts from your browser’s status bar. With the add-on installed, you’ll be able to see what’s new in each of your Gmail accounts, and you’ll be able to respond to compose mail or respond to messages quickly.
I heard that I can use the storage space provided by Gmail to store regular files. I don’t see anything about this in Gmail. Is this possible?
Yes. The free utility Gmail Drive (http://bit.ly/33AjJ) will create a virtual drive based upon your Gmail account. Once installed, the drive will show up in Windows Explorer just like any other drive.
In Windows 7, the drive is categorised as “Other.” When you first try to access or double-click the drive, Gmail Drive prompts you for your Gmail logon credentials. Once you’re logged on, you can drag and drop files to your Gmail drive just as you can to any other.
How can I back up my Gmail?
The easiest way is to have Gmail forward a copy of all incoming messages to another e-mail account. You can use another free e-mail provider, such as Yahoo! or Microsoft if you wish.
To set up forwarding, open your Gmail account, and click Settings.
From the Settings screen, click Forwarding and POP/IMAP, and from the Forwarding section, select “Forward a copy of incoming mail.” Supply an e-mail address to which mail should be forwarded.
In addition to backing up your e-mail, this feature will also give you a way to access your e-mail when Gmail is down or inaccessible for any reason. In an age when, for many people, e-mail is crucial to getting work done, backing up in this manner is a good idea.
The main reason I don’t use Gmail is that I hate web interfaces. They’re completely mouse oriented. Is there some kind of add-on or macro program that will allow me to assign keyboard shortcuts to Gmail?
You don’t need an add-on to make Gmail keyboard friendly. All you need to do is learn and take advantage of the many built-in keyboard shortcuts available already.
For instance, log on to your Gmail account, and press the letter “c” to compose a new message. While reading a message, press “r” to reply or “a” to reply to all recipients. Press “f” to forward. Press “n” to see the next message as you’re reading the current one, and press “p” to see the previous one. To see a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, just click the Help link and type “keyboard” in the resulting search box.
Of course, you can also set up your favourite e-mail program, such as Outlook, to retrieve and send Gmail, bypassing the web interface altogether. Then you’ll have the familiar keyboard shortcuts at your disposal.
There’s a new Buzz link in my Gmail. I watched the video tutorial about Buzz and clearly have no use for it. How do I get rid of it?
Buzz, the new Twitter-like Google service that allows you and others within a defined social group to post what’s going on or what’s interesting, is getting mixed reviews — and not just from those who see no use for it, like you. Some of those who actually use it complain that the service is resource-hungry and intrusive. If you use it, its integration into Gmail means that you’re notified of a “buzz” via your Gmail inbox.
It’s easy to get rid of Buzz, though. From the Settings screen, locate and click the Buzz link among the available settings. From the “Buzz choices” section, click “Do not show Google Buzz in Gmail” and/or Disable Google Buzz.
Selecting “Do not show Google Buzz in Gmail” will simply remove the Buzz link from your Gmail. Disabling Buzz will remove any Buzz profile you’ve created as well as any posts (or buzzes) that you’ve made.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Internet abuzz after Chilean earthquake
News of the Chilean earthquake, one of the largest recorded over the last 100 years, sent millions around the world online in search of information and ways to help.
The social networking site Twitter (http://twitter.com) was abuzz a mere minutes after the earthquake struck.
On Twitter, which has developed into a key means by which both individuals and news organisations seek first-hand accounts of breaking events, thousands flocked to the hashtags #Chile, #earthquake, and #tsunami. Hastags are the means by which Twitter users organize messages - or “tweets” - around particular topics.
The best way to follow topics on a particular hashtag is to visit Twitter’s advanced search site (http://search.twitter.com/advanced) and type the topic or hashtag into the “This hashtag” text box. Then click Search, and every recent tweet containing that hashtag will appear.
Followers of the hashtag #Chile provided links to up-to-the-minute news about the disaster, while those following the hashtag #earthquake concentrated on well-wishes and news about the potential after-effects of the historic quake. Reports of impending tsunamis around the Pacific Ocean sent legions to the hashtag #tsunami, where forecasts and first-hand reports from Hawaii and other endangered regions dominated conversation.
Hoards also flocked to the tweets of Elliot Yamin (http://twitter.com/ElliottYamin), a former contestant of the popular American Idol television show, who was in Chile at the time of the quake. Yamin’s tweets gave followers a sense of the magnitude of the disaster.
“Complete and utter chaos on the streets,” Yamin wrote. “No power.
... my heart is beatin outta my chest ... tsunami warning.” Hours later, fans and followers were relieved to hear that Yamin was safe. “I’m totally calm now,” the star wrote. “Got blankets from our rooms, and we’re all huddled on the street, no aftershocks for a while.” After the Haitian earthquake, Internet users quickly became used to donating to relief organizations either online or through their mobile phones. Unfortunately, there were more than a few scam artists on the prowl, too, seeking to take advantage of the world’s generosity.
In an effort to head off such deception, many of the major relief organizations quickly mobilized online. The Red Cross began accepting donations through its International Response Fund (http://bit.ly/9FR5Tw), while Save the Children asked for donations through its Children’s Emergency Fund (http://bit.ly/9cXGzV).
AmeriCares set up a Chilean Earthquake Fun web site (http://bit.ly/avqkWc).
Google, too, quickly published a Crisis Response page (http://www.google.com/relief/chileearthquake), through which people could safely donate to the Chilean relief efforts of reputable organizations including UNICEF and the American Red Cross.
Google launched a Person Finder tool on its Crisis Response page.
Person Finder provides a way for those looking for loved ones and those who might have information about those loved ones to connect.
Click “I’m looking for someone,” type a name, and Person Finder will provide a list of people. Click one of the names, and a profile page appears, offering places to leave messages or provide descriptions. Click “I have information about someone,” type a name, and Person Finder provides a way for you to enter what you know about that person’s whereabouts.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Apple unveils iPad tablet with onscreen keyboard
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has unveiled the iPad, a tablet-style computer that resembles the iPhone, but larger.
“It's so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone,” Mr. Jobs said on Wednesday at the device's highly anticipated debut in San Francisco.
Mr. Jobs demonstrated how the iPad is used for surfing the Web with Apple's Safari browser. He typed an e-mail using an on-screen keyboard and flipped through photo albums by flicking his finger across the screen.
The CEO says the iPad will also be better for reading books, playing games and watching video than either a laptop or a smart phone.
Now Apple will have to convince consumers, many of whom already have Internet-connected phones, computers and TVs, that that's the case. Tablet computers have existed for a decade, with little success. No price or information on availability was immediately announced.
“It's so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone,” Mr. Jobs said on Wednesday at the device's highly anticipated debut in San Francisco.
Mr. Jobs demonstrated how the iPad is used for surfing the Web with Apple's Safari browser. He typed an e-mail using an on-screen keyboard and flipped through photo albums by flicking his finger across the screen.
The CEO says the iPad will also be better for reading books, playing games and watching video than either a laptop or a smart phone.
Now Apple will have to convince consumers, many of whom already have Internet-connected phones, computers and TVs, that that's the case. Tablet computers have existed for a decade, with little success. No price or information on availability was immediately announced.
