Google+

What is Google+ (Google Plus) and do I need it?

Google+ vs. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg's Reaction

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We are all waiting for the Full version of Google+

With my regards

Abdullah

Turkey Plans Internet Filtering (coming soon 22 August)

Under a decision on “Rules and Procedures of the Safety of Internet Use,” approved by the Information Technologies Board or [BTK] in February, Internet users in Turkey will have to choose one of four Internet packages: family, children, domestic or standard. The list of websites filtered by each package will be decided by the BTK but will not be made public.

The change will be implemented starting Aug. 22

Users will have to choose one of four filters. One is called the family filter and another is for children. The domestic filter blocks all foreign sites. And the standard package will be the default. Yaman Akdeniz, a law professor at Bilgi University, worries that Turkish authorities will use these filters to step up control of the Internet.

“They are not telling us whether there will be monitoring of everyone’s habits and usage, since everyone will have a user name and password under this system,” said Azdeniz.

The head of the telecommunications regulatory agency, Tayfun Acarer appeared on television and denied that any filters would be mandatory. He said that the measures are meant only to enforce Turkish law.

“Turkey is more transparent than many other countries regarding this issue,” Acarer said. “I want to emphasize this. When you go to a banned site in a European country, you see only a flag or a stop sign. But if a web site is blocked in Turkey, it is always clearly stated when, why and by which institution the page was banned.


As the board’s decision does not have a legal basis, its limitations and authorities are not clear either, according to Kerem Altınparmak, an expert in human rights law who spoke Tuesday in an interview on NTVMSNBC. “According to what extent [and what measures] will such a decision be applied? There is no [provision] on this [on the decision].

“If we assume that a family consists of five members, of ages between 8 and 60 and it has only one computer: which package shall it choose?” Altınparmak said, adding that adults risked to be treated like children regarding access to various Internet websites.

I like to remind you that thousands of people in more than 30 cities around Turkey took to the streets on May to protest the new system of filtering the Internet that opponents consider censorship. 

sources:

http://www.nytimes.com

http://www.theworld.org

IBM scientists create a new memory technology that’s 100x faster than flash

IBM developed a new type of computer chip memory that can store multiple data bits per cell, a discovery that could lead to better performance for enterprise data storage and cheaper memory chips for consumer electronics like mobile phones.


Traditionally, data is stored as an electrical charge. But this new memory chip technology called phase-change memory stores data by changing the state of a material from amorphous to crystalline. PCM stores data when there’s a resistance change in the material. It uses less power than flash memory and can write data 100 times faster than any flash memory that is available today.


Currently only single-level cells PCM are on the market and are found in products like Samsung’s GT-E2550 GSM mobile phone. The multi-level cell technology could lead to better storage density, keep data forever and reduce manufacturing costs.


“As organizations and consumers increasingly embrace cloud-computing models and services, whereby most of the data is stored and processed in the cloud, ever more powerful and efficient, yet affordable storage technologies are needed,” Haris Pozidis, manager of Memory and Probe Technologies at IBM Research said in a statement.


The chip is 90 nanometers in width. It can store data when there’s no power supply and won’t corrupt the data. IBM researchers have been working on PCM for a while. In 2005, IBM partnered with Infineon and Macronix to develop PCM because the researchers saw a potential for PCM to succeed flash memory chips, which are in consumer electronics such as digital cameras.


However, IBM won’t produce the new memory chips, but plans to license the technology out to others.




source: http://www.smartplanet.com