Continuing our focus on the Internet (it is, after all, 40 years since the Internet started to exist as the ARPANET): the ICANN recently approved non-Latin web addresses. In layman’s terms, web addresses will no longer be limited to characters within or similar to the English alphabet, or numbers. We’ll probably see website domains in Arabic, Chinese, and Russian scripts.

It’s news that should please the Internet’s non-English users and domain name speculators alike. The former will now enjoy a web that’s no longer limited to English, potentially opening it up to new users. The latter will now have more names …read more

During the same year man walked on the moon, the first node of what later became the ARPANET—predecessor to something we all know as the Internet—was set up. UCLA’s Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Leonard Kleinrock, played a big part of this, developing the “basic principles of packet switching” that made such a groundbreaking achievement possible. The dude won a National Medal of Science last year for this, and he’s the one explaining how what’s basically the first internet connection was made in the video below:
n operation that’s done literally millions of times today was much harder to execute way …read more

Andrew Ross, the depressing brother of Newsweek writer Winston Ross, is the star attraction of the magazine’s feature on how Internet addiction can destroy lives. In Andrew’s case, he’s homeless, subsisting on food stamps and free usage of a computer at a nearby university.

Basically a more detailed discussion of how people get addicted to the internet, the article’s point is scary and interesting at the same time, presenting internet addiction as similar to other “traditional” life-destroying vices like alcohol and drug use. Like those, suddenly cutting off access to a computer may cause more harm than good:
It’s a difficult problem …read more

According to Arbor Networks, an internet security firm based in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, internet traffic in the US peaks around 11PM eastern time. Or for those who live on the west coast, 8PM. Arbor looked at weekdays during last July, gathering traffic data from internet service providers that account for half of internet activity in the US.
What does this mean exactly? Either most Americans like to surf more at home, like to download more away from the office, or leisurely activities simply require more bandwidth. Think about it: how large are office documents compared to say, movies and music?
Speaking of media, …read more

Uh-oh, looks like wasting time on the Internet is easy for us to get into, at least biologically. Worse, our biology also chemically rewards such behavior.
To make a long story short, dopamine—the same neurotransmitting checmical linked to feelings of happiness and fulfillment—also rewards us when we successfully make “intellectual connections” and divine “meaning”. In other words, that’s why you feel so compelled to follow links in Wikipedia, or Google for new terms as they enter your consciousness. Dopamine makes you feel good whenever you discover the history of your favorite TV show, or the scientific processes that drive a microprocessor.
There’s …read more

So it seems China is really serious about censoring internet traffic. The New York Times reports that the government will require all PCs sold in the country must have filtering software pre-installed. With a implementation deadline of July 1, the system will allow the Chinese government to remotely update a banned list of websites stored on the computers.
I’m sure this will piss off a lot of Chinese. I can only imagine the reaction of online gamers who find access to their MMORPG cut at their local net cafe. But I’m pretty sure some savvy users will find ways around the …read more

Indeed! A world where even the most simplest tasks needed multiple screens to accomplish, and mom and dad each had a room to themselves for their internet-related stuff:
The misses? Well, one shared laptop is capable of doing everything outlined in the video, even the kid-monitoring stuff. And we definitely don’t need a “monitor” watching over our connections; that’s what all those software and communication protocols do on their own. The only hit I can think of is that virtual writing pad, very similar to today’s USB tablets. But it’s still doesn’t feel like writing on paper!
Also, consider how mom is …read more

Yesterday, Comcast increased its rates by 4.6 percent across the board, covering at the very least it’s digital cable and internet services:
The price hikes include $5.70 per month for the Digital Classic package, and $3.70 for standard cable service.
The increases are necessary because Comcast is hurt by the economy, too, spokesman Jeff Alexander said.
He cited gas prices, health care costs, increased programming costs, and improvements in the company’s technology and service.
As reader Carl noted when passing the news along, Comcast may have set a bad precedent for other service providers to follow. Can we expect companies to start charging higher …read more

A couple hackers… hacked their brethren in the recent DefCon 16, a yearly convention for, what else? Hackers. They won cheers from their fellow hackers, and are probably the buzz driving the grapevine right now. Here’s what you need to know:
The beauty of the technique presented by Alex Pilosov and Kapela is that hackers don’t need to break into websites or plant malicious computer code to control and tamper with data travelling the Internet, the presentation showed.

As a three-year-old veteran of the Internet, I’m pretty young by online standards. Still, it’s been long enough that I simply can’t imagine living without connectivity.
What am I Blabbing About?
As I wait for the damn restaurant staff to fix their WiFi connection—the very reason why I decided to patronize their establishment in the first place—I can’t help but try and remember what I did before I had constant access to the internets.