Internet & Websites - Page 28

In a strangely self-referential post, Britain's public broadcasting network, the BBC, has outlined the technical issues that have been plaguing, well, the BBC.

Although issues continued throughout the weekend, BBC News has now published a post that speaks about the problems. Its iPlayer service - the flagship streaming website that allows Brits to watch TV live, on demand, or listen to the radio for free provided they pay a licence fee - was struggling for unspecified reasons. Some users were unable to access the service at all, while the BBC website was forced to display a basic version. It led to speculation from some online users the network was victim of a Denial of Service attack. The iPlayer is critically acclaimed for its service and pioneering of official on-demand streaming.

The corporation put out tweets saying it hoped the service would be back up and running soon, as well as issuing an official apology. UK internet providers also noticed something was wrong. "The final fixes for the problems were expected to be applied on 21 July when the vast majority of people should be able reach the web-based video services as normal," the BBC News website says. "The BBC said it would issue a statement when it knew more about the cause of the glitches."

It doesn't look like Google will be bringing its super-fast web service, Fiber, to the United Kingdom just yet - or have plans for anywhere outside the US.

Although a report in Britain's Telegraph talked of the possibility of Fiber heading to the UK in partnership with local provider CityFibre, a spokesperson told Engadget that it's probably best not to read too much into it. "We have informal conversations with other telecom companies all the time," the spokesperson said. "But we've never had any serious planning discussions about bringing Google Fiber to Britain." It's not exactly surprising that Google was keen to quash the rumor - it is stepping on enough toes in the United States with its immensely anticipated rollout of Fiber. That said, it's also a limited rollout, available only in a handful of cities thus far.

Google Fiber promises as much as 1 gigabit per second download and upload speeds, which is a veritable triumph over many of even the most comprehensive and speedy packages available from other providers in the United States and further afield. So it's not something to be ruled out from happening completely, but there will likely be a lot of groundwork to do closer to home before Google gets more ambitious abroad.

No matter what it tries the content industry can't seem to stem the popularity of public enemy number one, The Pirate Bay, and now new figures show the torrent indexer's traffic has doubled since the first wave of blocks came into place.

Despite many wings of the content industry claiming each countrywide block on The Pirate Bay a victory, actually its traffic is doing better than ever. The first really high profile blockades began in Denmark, the UK and Holland, but the website's visitor numbers have doubled since then. Actual visitor numbers were not revealed but TorrentFreak puts them in hundreds of millions per month.

Nearly 10 percent of all visitors to The Pirate Bay access the website through proxies or proxy services, meaning that even in countries where it's officially banned, users are finding ways to access it anyway. The most visitors were from the United States, where many of the more vocal voices from the content lobby reside.

Want to use Netflix on social but scared your friends will see just how much you've watched those embarrassing guilty pleasures? Fear not - the TV and movie streaming service could be planning its very own incognito mode.

Right now the company is in the process of testing the option in all of its market over the next few months, but it's not available to every or even most users. But if it is set to be integrated in Netflix, it'll appear as part of the multiple user profile feature. Not only would the option keep your guilty pleasures safe, but it would also scrub these from contributing towards user recommendations.

It's not guaranteed that the feature will become widespread - with new corporate comms and tech director Cliff Edwards saying this depends on the reactions from users. "We may not ever offer it generally," he said, according to GigaOm. "At Netflix we continuously test new things. In this case, we are testing a feature in which a user watching a movie or TV show can choose to view in "Privacy Mode." Choosing that option means the program will not appear in your viewing activity log, nor will it be used to determine recommendations about what you should watch in the future."

Next year, frequent content pirates in Britain are to be sent official warning emails reminding them that downloading copyrighted content on P2P networks is against the law. However, if they're ignored, absolutely nothing will happen.

As part of a new initiative, which was agreed upon by the content industry and all major internet providers in the UK, frequent offenders will be monitored by a third party. Those found to be downloading copyrighted content will receive an educational email, reminding them that their actions are illegal, and providing options for legal alternatives - such as Netflix, Spotify, and Google Music. The process is heavily amended from the initial proposal, listed in 2010's Digital Economy Act, which demanded content pirates had their internet access stripped away. Its new iteration is called the Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme and is considerably less stern.

The British Phonographic Industry, a lobby group which has been a key player in brokering the deal, said that this initiative is more about realigning people's habits rather than punishment alone - the latter being something the content industry is widely known for pursuing. "It's about persuading the persuadable, such as parents who do not know what is going on with their net connection," the BPI's chief exec George Taylor told the BBC. "Vcap is not about denying access to the internet, it's about changing attitudes and raising awareness so people can make the right choice."

Netflex and Verizon are having a catfight about allegedly capping internet bandwidth that affects the online streaming service. This time, Verizon is pointing its fingers at Netflix, claiming in its blog post that the streaming service is stifling its own subscriber's experience.

Verizon said that its subscriber complained of fetting bad Netflix performance even though he is using the 75Mbps FiOS connection plan. But Verizon defended its internet service by saying that there is no congestion from the company's broadband infrastructure, which offloads all the suspicion on Netflix.

Verizon's operations team conducted a study when it received a complaint from its customer when Netflix sent a mail to its Verizon's dastardly deed. Verizon explained that congestion happens when it reaches 100% capacity which usually happens during peak usage periods. However, when they compared with other services which uses non-Netflix traffic, there was no congestion at all.

Street walkers and criminals trying to exploit prostitution are finding great success by becoming more Internet savvy, promoting their activities with little risk of law enforcement interference. Higher-end escorts - generating $500+ per hour for their "company" - rely on websites and Internet advertising to generate interest.

A survey of sex workers found they gave an average response of 3.91 on a scale of 1-10 when asked about risk of arrest - and more than 31 percent of those asked rated risk just 1 or 2.5.

"If a prostitute invests in her website's copy editing, professional photographs, or video, this may signal to potential customers her quality, education level, or income (and thus popularity or success in the market)," said Scott R. Peppet, University of Colorado law professor, in a recent research paper. "Such signals matter: evidence suggests, for example, that sex workers proficient in English can charge higher prices and are more likely to attract customers, and that prostitutes willing to reveal an accurate picture of themselves command higher prices."

Ubervita, the company that manufactures testosterone boosters, weight loss supplements and other body enhancement pills filed a case claiming that many phony negative reviews were posted on Amazon to disrupt its sales of products.

A federal judge ruled in the company's favour, giving them the right to issue a subpoena Amazon and even Craiglist of cough up the details of those reviews who allegedly posting fake negative reviews.

What ruled in Ubervita's favor is that ads were found in Craiglist which offered cash to post negative reviews about Ubervita products by posing as a dissatisfied customer. Ubervita said that it is necessary to get access of this information to catch those who are running a 'campaign' against Ubervita and place them under a disadvantage. U.S. District judge Marsha Pechman said that Amazon and Craiglist must reveal information such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, IP addresses and even credit card details and bank account information.

Newegg made an announcement recently that the online retail site will now start accepting Bitcoins as a method of payment from now on. The company also started a new hashtag '#neweggbitcoin' to gather peoples thoughts and rants about its new payment method.

One can select Bitcoin as a method of payment under its step 2 'billing' options while checking out. Newegg is using 'Bitpay' to process Bitcoin payments as its proven itself to be an industry-leading reliable and scalable option to process such transaction. A buyer can also use the digital wallet stored in their smartphone as it will use the QR code stored in the phone or the link of the digital wallet to proceed with the payment.

Soren Mills, Chief Marketing Officer for Newegg North America said,"Newegg's customers are among some of the earliest Bitcoin miners and are enthusiastic proponents of the crypto-currency. Adopting Bitcoin as a payment method is another way we're responding to our customers' diverse needs". He continued,"Working with BitPay to implement a Bitcoin payment option at Newegg was a seamless process and our partnership gives us the capabilities we require for high-volume e-commerce."

So long then, Orkut - Google's first social network, now ten years old, is officially closing its doors at the end of this September.

Orkut began life in the earlier days of web 2.0, at the time competing with the likes of Myspace. It was incredibly popular in South America, and enjoyed millions of users in its heyday. Now, in a blog post, the social network is saying "tchau". Orkut "helped shape life online before people really knew what social networking was," the post read. "Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut's growth, we've decided to bid Orkut farewell."

Google plans to keep investing its time in the newer, mentioned networks. But to any users still lurking around, there will be an archive of all public communities - available at the date of Orkut's death late September. Those that don't want their details to be kept online can remove Orkut permanently through their Google+ accounts - where else?

Almost half of public and private sector organisations in Europe are actively blocking people's access to their own personal data, which is against European law.

A study, which was part of the IRISS - Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Societies - project examined 184 public and private sector groups across 10 European countries. The requests included paper, digital and CCTV records, according to Engineering and Technology Magazine. Of the requests made, 43 percent were not fulfilled or a legitimate reason was not provided for the lack of disclosure. Over half of all cases - at 56 percent - found no legally compliant response at all over third party data sharing.

"We are selectively marketed to, our locations are tracked by CCTV and automated licence plate recognition systems and our online behavior is monitored, analysed, stored and used," said Professor Clive Norris, of the University of Sheffield. "The challenge for all of us is that our information is often kept from us, despite the law and despite our best efforts to access it."

We all know that Facebook is in business to make money. It's easy to forget that the social network isn't there just to let you quote random saying from the web and let you keep in touch with people you probably don't want to see in the real-world. Yesterday Facebook was down for about half an hour, and for some it was the longest half hour of the day.

The short outage reportedly cost Facebook $500,000, which suggests that the site rakes in about a million dollars an hour during normal operation. That $500,000 figure came from Facebook's quarterly earnings report for Q1 that showed $2.5 billion made in ad revenue, working out to about $1.16 million an hour.

Facebook says that the outage was the result of an issue that occurred while updating the configuration of site software. Users who went nuts while Facebook was down can feel a bit better about the potential for this to happen again in the future, the social network vows this problem will never happen again.

America's Secret Service is on the hunt for software that can differentiate between tone on social media - including registering sarcasm.

In a work order posted this week, the agency is revealed to be searching for software able to monitor users in real-time, as well as collecting data - including the emotions of web users, and in multiple languages.

The work order claims it's important the software has the "ability to detect sarcasm and false positives."

Facebook's security infrastructure head has claimed his entire team wear "tinfoil hats" when it comes to privacy and promised end-to-end encryption that would kill government snooping on the social network.

Gregg Stefancik told journalists on a trip to Australia that Facebook is thoroughly rehashing its communications, with a view to making them secure. He said the company isn't there quite yet, however, encryption is a priority.

"We've prioritized encrypting the traffic that is most sensitive at Facebook, and we're working aggressively to get to the point where we can tell you we'll have it all encrypted between datacentres," Stefancik said.

Online cyberbullying has greatly increased year-over-year, with 27 percent of youth witnessing cyberbullying, and the number increased greatly up to 87 percent this year, according to McAfee "2014 Teens and the Screen Study: Exploring Online Privacy, Social Networking and Cyberbullying" report.

A further investigation into cyberbullying, found that 72 percent was caused by appearance; 26 percent due to race or religion; and 22 percent due to sexuality. The rising popularity of social networking websites has made it even easier for members to harass one another on the Internet - and wide adoption of smartphones and tablets only intensifies the problem.

Here is what Michelle Dennedy, McAfee chief privacy officer, said in a press release: "Parents must discuss online activity with their children to better ensure their safety and security offline. Whether a child is a victim or an instigator of cruel behavior such as cyberbullying, the negative behavior can deeply affect their identity and their reputation. By uncovering our youth's online behavior activities, parents, guardians, teachers and coaches can be more aware of cruel behavior that can potentially take place offline. As a result of closely monitoring online activities, hopefully we all can do our part to provide appropriate assistance and help eradicate cyberbullying."

South Korean singer Psy's popular "Gangnam Style" music video became the first video to reach 2 billion views, as it instantly went viral after being posted online in July 2012. "Gangnam Style" has held the most viewed YouTube video for quite some time, also becoming the first video to eclipse the 1 billion-view mark.

Psy's "Gentleman" music video holds the record for most video views in a single day, picking up 38 million in less than 24 hours.

"2 billion views... they are very honorable and very burdensome numbers," Psy said in a statement. "With appreciation, I will come back soon with more joyful contents!"

The British Prime Minister's intellectual property adviser has said Google should do more to curb online piracy, and has urged the search giant to lead the charge in curbing the trend.

In a new report, member of parliament Mike Weatherley suggested it is up to search engines to take the fight to copyright theft, putting the indomitable market leader Google in the crosshairs.

His recommendations, the Guardian reports, will be presented to British business secretary Vince Cable - and one idea is to stop advertising cashflow for websites that appear to be making a profit on piracy.

Copyright holders and the City of London police have been working hand in hand to bring down Torrentz.eu, the largest torrent search platform on the internet.

A special request from Britain's Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit saw the domain name being suspended as part of wider efforts to put the brakes on access to copyrighted material. The move follows warning letters and previous campaigns to suspend domain names of sites allegedly affiliated with torrent hosting.

The operator of Torrentz told TorrentFreak that although the domain name has been suspended by the registrar following a British police request, it is still registered to Torrentz and the team hopes to move the site elsewhere.

Privacy has always been a big concern when it comes to social networking, and Facebook has been at the frontlines of both sides of the privacy debate. Back in 2009 Facebook introduced a new default option to let the entire world see your post, but that lead to several outcries from privacy advocates. Today it appears as if those cries have been heard, and Facebook has made some adjustments to fix this issue.

Facebook now defaults all new users post and images to the "Friends Only" option which means that those pieces of content will only be visible to that users friends, and the public will not be able to read or see them. Existing users will see their settings remain the same, but Facebook is notifying them of their current privacy settings and asking them if they would like to change them. Facebook is calling this a Privacy Checkup, and the message will appear in the form of a popup when existing users post a new post.

While all of this is good for those who over share everything (I am guilty myself), I find that the best privacy policy is to only share things on any social media platform that you do not mind the entire world reading. Just take a moment and ask yourself, "Would I like my boss, mother, PTA president, or local news station to read this?" if so, then post it. If not, well it may be best to leave it off of Facebook.

Just how many webpages does The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine include? Well, from late 1996, right up until just a few hours ago, over 400 billion indexed webpages sit on its servers. The Internet Archive has celebrated this milestone by providing a list of highlights for The Wayback Machine over the years: