Onsight Data

In the face of increasing innovation and competition in the search market, Google is upping the ante by developing new technology which will speed up indexing search results and create a larger index.

Web developers have been invited by Google engineers to test the new search engine and give their feedback. The front end of the engine looks no different. It is the back end technology which Google developers hope will noticeably index new content faster and reduce the time between new content being published online and it then appearing in a Google search result.

Matt Cutts, a principal engineer at Google and Sitaram Iyer, a staff software engineer posted an entry on the company’s webmaster central blog, appealing to developers to try the newly improved service and send them some feedback.

“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google's web search. It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.”

“The new infrastructure sits "under the hood" of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we're opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback,” they explained.

A Google spokesperson added: “"Google is always working on new technologies to improve the quality of our search services. We hope this new system will improve search in the areas of speed, accuracy, and comprehensiveness."

Martin McNulty, director of search marketing specialist, Trafficbroker, who has tried the new version, said: “Google's caffeine is undoubtedly faster, almost twice as fast at times. It's like a Google GTi.

“Caffeine may be 'under the hood' but with this noticeable injection of speed it won't remain under the radar for long.

“As for accuracy, it's hard to say at this early stage but Google is clearly upping its game by including real-time results and more breaking news, as well as updates from the likes of Facebook and Twitter.”

In the last few months Microsoft has revamped its own search engine, formely called Live, rebranding it Bing and claiming it performs more intuitive searches. Prior to that, Wolfram Alpha launched, which performs searches based on computational knowledge.

Mr McNulty added: “The launch of Bing has been a good thing, although unfortunately more for Google than Bing if the level of innovation continues at this frantic pace. Google is still very much in the driving seat and is still setting the pace." You can try out the new search engine at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/

An Australian video gamer has stolen thousands of dollars from a bank inside an online game and converted them into real-world money.

The bank heist happened in Eve Online, where players mine in-game resources to build colonies and space ships in a futuristic space-themed online world. The game has hundreds of thousands of players who pay for access to the world. An in-game economy, complete with its own currency known as interstellar kredits, has emerged to enable trading transactions within the game. Numerous banks have even sprung up.

The gamer, a 27-year old Australian, was an executive with EBank, one of the larger player-run banks within the game, with thousands of depositors. He used the online name of Ricdic.

"Basically this character was one of the people that [had] been running EBank for a while," Ned Coker of CCP, the real-world Icelandic company that developed the game, told Reuters News Agency. "He took a bunch of (virtual) money out of the bank, and traded it away for real money."

The player made off with about 200 billion interstellar credits, CCP says, and traded the currency to players who preferred to purchase credits (as opposed to earning them by accomplishing tasks in the game) for the equivalent of about $5,800 Canadian.

The heist represents about 8 per cent of the total deposits EBank holds, CCP says.

Cash used to pay medical expenses

In an interview with Reuters, Ricdic said an email from a black market website that traded online money for real cash popped up on his screen, prompting him to exchange the virtual cash for real money to cover a deposit on his house and expenses related to his son's medical problems.

"I saw that as an avenue that could be taken, and I decided to skim off the top, you could say, to overcome real-life (difficulties)," he told Reuters.

News of the theft quickly spread within the game, prompting runs on the bank where players withdrew their credits to safeguard them against the apparent security breach.

The Eve world is one where piracy, racketeering and ransom are permitted within the game, so ironically, had the player merely robbed the bank within the game he would have escaped punishment. But exchanging in-game credits for real-world currency breaks the rules of the game, so Ricdic has his account frozen by the game's developers.

'If I had to do it again, I probably would've chosen the same path.'- Eve Online player Ricdic

Asked if he regretted his action, Ricdic expressed remorse for letting down fellow EBank staffers, whom he considered friends.

"I'm not proud of it at all, that's why I didn't brag about it," he told Reuters. "But you know, if I had to do it again, I probably would've chosen the same path based on the same situation."

Shadowy financial transactions are nothing new to the online gaming world. Several websites have sprung up to facilitate trading of real-world dollars for online currencies in a variety of games, but the practice is fraught with peril due to anonymity and lack of accountability.

The practice is so prevalent that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce moved on Friday to ban the trade of real-world money for online currencies. It's been estimated that so-called "credit factories" - where Asia-based players accumulate in-game credits and sell them to users in the real economy - is worth more as much as $1-billion (U.S.) annually.

"Virtual currency ... will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services," the ministry said in a release.

In 2004, Indiana University professor Edward Castronova published the seminal work on online economies, in which he found that players in a game called EverQuest had an average "minimum wage" of $3.42 per hour, giving the world a per-capita gross domestic product greater than that of Russia, with a currency of greater value than the Japanese yen.

MONTREAL - Bell (TSX:BCE) and Telus (TSX:T) customers should have a greater choice of mobile phones, possibly Apple's iPhone, and better prices when the wireless companies roll out next-generation networks in early next year, analysts say.

The move will put both Bell and Telus in a better competitive situation against Rogers Wireless (TSX:RCI.B), analysts said Tuesday.

"Levelling the playing field is what this is all about," said analyst Nick Agostino of Research Capital Corporation.

"The benefit is definitely going to be for the consumer for a change."

Bell and Telus are building an HSPA network which is becoming the main platform for wireless carriers worldwide and is the same kind of network that Rogers has.

The networks are slated to be in place for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Rogers has had the advantage because of its network, Agostino said.

"They have been able to get all of the latest and greatest devices first."

Rogers currently has the only network in Canada capable of running Apple's iPhone.

Rogers wouldn't comment Tuesday on the length of its agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone to Canadian consumers.

Agostino said with Rogers, Bell and Telus all having the same type of network that should lower prices for data plans that allow consumers to do such things as stream video and prices for the devices themselves. It could also lower contracts to two years from three for some mobile phones, he added.

It has been reported that the iPhone will be coming to Bell and Telus when their new networks are completed.

Telus spokesman Jim Johannsson wouldn't comment on the rumour, but said the new network opens up potentially more mobile phones for consumers when its up and running early next year.

"It's a faster network for consumers who have advanced smartphones or feature phones that have web browsing capabilities," he said.

Bell Mobility also wouldn't comment on whether it would be offering the iPhone in the future.

The new networks also put both Bell and Telus on the path to a more advanced and faster network called LTE, or Long-Term Evolution, that is also expected to eventually become the dominant global standard for wireless carriers.

IDC Canada analyst Kevin Restivo said if the iPhone is eventually sold by Bell and Telus, that would change the landscape for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (TSX:RIM).

"All of a sudden, RIM's got just a much stronger competitor on its hands when it comes to the consumer segment, in which RIM is already in a fierce battle," Restivo said from Toronto.

RIM and Apple were No. 1 and 2 respectively in North America for smartphone shipments, IDC says.

Restivo said if Bell and Telus eventually sell the iPhone, that's a big opportunity for their customers to upgrade to that touchscreen phone.

More than half of the wireless subscribers in Canada are on those two networks, he said of Bell and Telus.

"It gives those customers one more reason to stay," Restivo said.

Even if the iPhone doesn't come to Bell and Telus, there will be "another hot device," he said.

Rogers said Thursday that in the second half of 2008, it sold about 385,000 3G iPhones. Since the recent launch of the new iPhone 3GS, Rogers and Fido have sold "tens of thousands units," the carrier said.

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved

Creating HTML Email is a tough gig.

By the time you add up all the relevant desktop clients and common webmail providers, you are talking about between 15-30 platforms you need to test for. Even if all those mail clients were friendly, modern and predictable net citizens, that would still be a big task.

They're not.

A few years ago - joy of joys - things got significantly harder when Microsoft chose to cripple the rendering-capabilities of their flagship mail product by replacing its HTML rendering engine with Word.

This is roughly equivalent to replacing your lawnmower with a sand wedge - you can try all day but it just doesn't cut it.

Although at the time, there was some speculation that the decision was motivated by security concerns, Microsoft have since made it clear that they were simply more interested in making the Outlook 2007 to Outlook 2007 experience better (read the Campaign Monitor guys' post for the nitty gritty).

This has to stop. Email is an open standard and we should be past the time when we NEED to continue to spruik this argument to Microsoft. Put simply, Word's horrid understanding of HTML is costing us all time and money while detracting from everyone's experience.

At this point in time, Microsoft appear to be intent on using the Word rendering engine in Outlook 2010 - but it's not too late. The app is still in early beta and Microsoft are asking for feedback.

So what do we do about it?

The most immediate impact you can have is getting down to http://fixoutlook.org/ and tweeting to let Microsoft know this is NOT cool.

If you've ever sobbed salty tears into your keyboard over another Outlook 2007 email fail, you won't need much convincing.

Thinking of calling mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day today?  Network congestion is always a problem as it's one of the busiest calling days of the year.

SaskTel's Andy Tate explains, "Mother's Day is one of the busiest calling days of the year, every year.  It's busier then Father's Day, busier then Christmas Day and we do expect a high volume of long distance calls, in fact this is the tenth year in a row we project that we will have over one million call attempts on Mother's Day."

Tate has some advice before picking up the phone, "The best thing to do is to avoid the busiest times of the day, which are usually between 10am to 2pm and 7:30pm to 10pm.  Also make sure you dial the call yourself, instead of going through the operator if possible.  Check the phone number before you dial and also the time zone."

45 per cent of the calls are often made in Saskatchewan, 52 per cent go to other Canadian destinations and the other 3 per cent often go to the U.S. or overseas.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The dreaded Conficker computer worm is stirring. Security experts say the worm's authors appear to be trying to build a big moneymaker, but not a cyber weapon of mass destruction as many people feared.

As many as 12 million computers have been infected by Conficker. Security firm Trend Micro says some of the machines have been updated over the past few days with fake antivirus software - the first attempt by Conficker's authors to profit from their massive "botnet."

Criminals use bogus security software to extort money. Victims are told their computers are infected, and can be fixed only by paying for a clean-up that never happens.

Conficker gets on computers through a hole Microsoft patched in October. PCs set up for automatic Windows updates should be clean.

A cyber Trojan worm is expected to hit millions of computers on April 1, and authorities aren't treating it like an April Fool's joke.

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has issued a warning about the latest version of the Conficker worm, which could potentially have infected any computers running a Microsoft operating system.

CIRA, which manages Canada's dot-ca (.ca) domain name registry, says that the worm will force infected computers to connect randomly to about 50,000 web URLs a day beginning April 1.

But what could happen when those computers reach those websites is anyone's guess. Files on the websites could instruct the worm to do anything from steal passwords or banking information, to delete a person's hard drive to simply sending spam messages.

Experts say that anywhere from three to 12 million computers may be infected.

TV's technology expert Kris Abel said that most users with up-to-date anti-virus software should be fine and the biggest threat is towards computers that have been inactive for the last six months or so.

"These computers that have been infected . . . can be potentially organized . . . and be remotely controlled as one big organization force," Abel said. "Now typically this is done to use these computers to harvest credit card information . . . but we are not quite sure what the intentions will be on April 1."

Christopher Davis, the CEO of Defence Intelligence, an Ottawa-based information security firm, told CTV Newsnet that he believes the worm is "far from a hoax."

"It's one of the biggest bot-nets we've ever seen," he said.

Davis recommended that Canadian computer users make sure their Microsoft Windows update is working and that their anti-virus software is up to date.

He said that on April 1, when the worm goes live, the average user wouldn't notice it operating on their computer as it will run hidden.

says it is registering and isolating unregistered dot-ca domain names that are expected to be generated by the Conficker worm.

Abel says that there are tools online that will search and destroy the worm if you think your computer is infected.

by Mariella Moon

Yes, it's that time of the year again - the time to switch the lights off for one full hour; that is if you're planning to participate in the 2009 Earth Hour event. Earth Hour started off back in 2007 in Sydney to send out people's stance about climate change. Organizers claim as much as 10.2 percent decrease in energy consumption that first year with 2.2 million households in the Australian city taking part in the event.

"Earth Hour is an opportunity for the global community to speak in one voice on the issue of climate change, while at the same time coming together in celebration of the one thing every single person on the planet has in common - the planet," says Andy Ridley, Earth Hour Executive Director.

This year, Earth Hour will be held on March 28, starting at 8:30 in the evening during your timezone until 9:30PM. According to the Earth Hour web site, there are already more than 1,000 towns and cities that signed up to participate, exceeding the organizers' expectations. If you want to join in, you can check out the Google Map posted at the web site to see if your area has an Earth Hour event, or you can organize your own.

Originally posted to GoodCleanTech.com.

Note: Onsight Data will not be turing off our servers during 'Earth Hour'  ;)

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions_for_skype_pwnage/ 

Business model for P2P firm at last?

By Lewis Page

Posted in Government, 12th February 2009 11:32 GMT

Counter Terror Expo News of a possible viable business model for P2P VoIP network Skype emerged today, at the Counter Terror Expo in London. An industry source disclosed that America's supersecret National Security Agency (NSA) is offering "billions" to any firm which can offer reliable eavesdropping on Skype IM and voice traffic.

The spybiz exec, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed that Skype continues to be a major problem for government listening agencies, spooks and police. This was already thought to be the case, following requests from German authorities for special intercept/bugging powers to help them deal with Skype-loving malefactors. Britain's GCHQ has also stated that it has severe problems intercepting VoIP and internet communication in general.

Skype in particular is a serious problem for spooks and cops. Being P2P, the network can't be accessed by the company providing it and the authorities can't gain access by that route. The company won't disclose details of its encryption, either, and isn't required to as it is Europe based. This lack of openness prompts many security pros to rubbish Skype on "security through obscurity" grounds: but nonetheless it remains a popular choice with those who think they might find themselves under surveillance. Rumour suggests that America's NSA may be able to break Skype encryption - assuming they have access to a given call or message - but nobody else.

The NSA may be able to do that: but it seems that if so, this uses up too much of the agency's resources at present.

"They are saying to the industry, you get us into Skype and we will make you a very rich company," said the industry source, adding that the obscure encryption used by the P2Pware is believed to change frequently as part of software updates.

The spyware kingpin suggested that Skype is deliberately seeking to frustrate national listening agencies, which seems an odd thing to do - Skype has difficulties enough getting revenues out of its vast user base at any time, and a paid secure-voice system for subversives doesn't seem like a money-spinner.

But corporate parent eBay, having had to write down $1.4bn already following its $2.6bn purchase of Skype back in the bubble-2.0 days of 2005, might see an opportunity here. A billion or two from the NSA for a backdoor into Skype might make the acquisition seem like a sensible idea.

We asked the NSA for comment, particularly on the idea of simply buying a way into Skype, but hadn't yet received a response as of publication. ®

December 19, 2008, 2:01 PM

Internet and voice traffic to much of the Middle East and south Asia has been disrupted by the overnight loss of three major cables spanning the Mediterranean.

According to a notice from France Telecom, the three provisioning cables linking Sicily to Egypt were lost within about 40 minutes of one another Friday morning (local time). A France Telecom-owned maintenance ship will be dispatched to inspect the site within a few hours. Until then, it's not known what might have caused the cuts.

The three cables involved carry about 75% of telecom traffic to the region. The release states that much traffic between Europe and Asia is being re-routed through the US. Internet service seems to be most affected in Jordan, when it's estimated that connectivity is down by 50%. Estimates given for voice-service disruptions indicate that the hardest-hit countries so far are Maldives (100% out of service), India (82% out of service), Qatar (73%), Djibouti (71%), and United Arab Emirates (68%). Anecdotal reports also suggest that Egypt's widely affected as well.

The Internet Traffic Report at press time showed, as seen in the chart pictured (live view available), that traffic's certainly down and packet loss is up.

It should go without saying that fixing a fiberoptic cable at the bottom of the sea isn't as easy as swapping one strand of CAT5 for another under your desk, but some may be surprised to hear how exposed such cables often are. Many simply lie on the seabed and are buried only by whatever silt or debris collects over them. That certainly speeds up the process of getting to them when necessary, but if a cable is snagged by something dragging along the bottom (e.g., an anchor from a ship heading for the nearby Port of Alexandria), trouble can result.

At least one of the cables cut, the $500 million, 19,000 km, 1.28 Tbps SEA-ME-WE-4 stretching between France and Singapore, was one of the two cables involved the last time this happened, back in late January. That well-studied outage affected much the same area and, though storms in the region were suspected of having caused debris or an abandoned ship's anchor to sever the cables, no cause was ever identified. Four other significant cables were cut or damaged in the general region at about the same time, leading to much concern over the fragility of the Interwebs.

The other affected cables are SEA-ME-WE-3 (an earlier cable from the same 16-nation consortium, which took up much of the load during the January outage) and FLAG, a newer and supposedly more resilient cable.

France Telecom representatives currently think that SEA-ME-WE-4 could be fixed by Christmas Day, and that things should be getting back to normal by New Year's, marine weather permitting. Meanwhile, users around the world may see some congestion as traffic is re-routed.