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Google toolbar
ONLINE
search engine Google introduced several new gadgets in its popular
toolbar for Web browsers, hoping to build even greater brand loyalty
amid heightened competition. The new software out last week for the
toolbar includes a feature that automatically blocks pop-up ads, as well
a program that automatically fills out Internet forms seeking a customer’s
name and address. The function that fills in forms offers an option to
store credit card numbers too, but the information is encrypted on the
hard drive of a user’s computer instead of Google’s computers, for
security and privacy reasons. The toolbar also enables users to transfer
online content to Internet journals known as Weblogs, or "blogs,"
by pressing a button. Google emphasized that the new toolbar is still
being tested and could be revised later.
Speed record
An international team
has set new Internet2 Land Speed Records using next generation Internet
Protocols (IPv6) by achieving 983 megabits-per-second with a single IPv6
stream for more than an hour across a distance of 7,067 km from Geneva
to Chicago. The record can be compared to transferring the equivalent of
approximately one feature-length DVD-quality movie every 36 seconds, or
more than 3,500 times faster than the typical home broadband connection.
The record setting team consisted of members of the California Institute
of Technology (Caltech) and CERN. The new records were set through the
efforts of the DataTAG project and CERN using a standard Linux TCP
implementation, demonstrating the broad possibilities of today’s
high-performance networks.
Cyber biscuits
A Website exclusively
on biscuits has become a hit on the Internet in Britain, according to a
report in The Telegraph. Stuart Payne, an information technology
consultant in Cambridge, started the site "as a bit of a joke"
since he felt that biscuits were being ignored on the Web. Started two
years ago, the site has so far attracted more than 2,50,000 followers,
with persons eager to express their views on anything from a Rich Tea to
a Wagon Wheel biscuit. It features a biscuit of the week, a biscuit
quiz, where aficionados try to identify the remnants in a biscuit tin,
and breaking news from the exciting world of biscuits. Devotees of the
site send him biscuits from overseas, badger him to review their own
favourites and deluge him with their own opinions and tips on optimum
dunking procedures. Payne’s life now revolves around biscuit reviews,
biscuit news and biscuit trivia.
Indian IT spending
The Indian Government has
spent $ 1.008 billion on IT last year, accounting for nine per cent of
the country’s total IT spend, according to the estimates of famous
research and advisory firm Gartner. The
government, it said, emerged as the fourth largest vertical IT spender
in the country and included hardware and software but excluded salary
costs of IT staff. While ‘eGovernment’ was just five years old in
India, relatively nascent, 12 states already have an IT policy in place.
Besides, the government’s directive of keeping aside two per cent of
each state department’s budget for IT purchase had been instrumental
in driving IT penetration in government offices.
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