International cable deal struck with Pacific Fibre

July 19th, 2011

New Zealand will now have a second international internet link after Pacific Fibre struck a deal with US based cable company, TE SubCom.

Mark Rushworth, chief executive of Pacific Fibre said,

“Demand for international capacity in Australia and New Zealand is sharply increasing and is on track to continue growing for years to come,”

“The Pacific Fibre cable will not only provide unsurpassed high speed international connectivity to satisfy the growth in broadband demand, but it will also help Australia and New Zealand realize the potential of both countries’ multi-billion dollar broadband initiatives.”

If the plans stay to schedule, the cable is due to be operational by the first quarter of 2014.

You can read more over at the nzherald

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ISPs to charge for notices under ‘Skynet’ law

July 12th, 2011

The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act – nicknamed ‘Skynet‘ by opponents will come in to effect on the 1st of September. The Act aims to stamp out illegal file sharing using a 3 strikes system. ISPs will have the right to send notices to users warning them to stop or their internet access can be suspended, pending a decision from the courts.

News today has revealed ISPs will charge $25 to rights holder who suspect their copyright is being breached. The charge is then used by the ISP to investigate the claim and send an infringement notice if required.

You can read more over at stuff.co.nz

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Telecom and Crown Fibre ultra fast broadband hold up

July 4th, 2011

A deadline to agree where the fibre for the new Ultra Fast Broadband network will be layed down has been missed. The plan was meant to be agreed on within 30 days of Telecom securing its $929 million contract with the Crown, which happened on May 24.

Telecom spokesman Ian Bonnar has said the delay is because they are working through settling on the final stages of the agreement.

“We want to make sure that we have a plan that meets the Crown’s objectives to target high-priority customers and will be delivered on time, ” said Bonnar, going on to say,

“We believe a fundamental key to successful projects is that a little more time spent up front planning significantly increases the likelihood that outcomes will be delivered on time and in full.”

You can read more over at stuff.co.nz

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Facebook overtakes Microsoft in UK, Google still on top

June 28th, 2011

Whilst Google is still the most popular website in the UK, Facebook is now in 2nd place, overtaking Microsoft related websites (MSN/WindowsLive/Bing).

A report from online measurement body UKOM/Nielsen has found, for the month of May,

  • Facebook attracted 26.8 million visitors
  • Microsoft wasn’t too far behind, on 26.2 million visitors
  • Google was the clear leader however, with 33.9 million visitors
  • Twitter had 6.1 million visitors
  • While LinkedIn had 3.6 million visitors

You can read more over at stuff.co.nz

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Posted in Facebook, Google, linkedin, Microsoft, social networking, twitter | No Comments »

Caching – what is it?

June 21st, 2011

I came across an article over at stuff.co.nz today which I thought would make a good blog post.

The article was about caching, which is quite a common issue that crops up in web design.

To put it very simply, caching is when your internet browser remembers parts of the web page you visited and stores a copy of them on your computer. Next time you view the web page your browser will load parts of the page from your cache, to speed up loading times.

Sometimes we will make a change to a website, but the website will still look the same as before. 99 percent of the time you can solve this by holding down CTRL and F5 at the same time. This tells most browsers to reload the page in it’s entirety, so you should now see the changes.

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Building a better password

June 17th, 2011

stuff.co.nz has a good article with some handy tips on how to create a better password.

It seems we’re not very creative when we come up with our passwords. In 2009, 10,000 Hotmail passwords were leaked. The most popular passwords?  123456, followed by 123456789. Not very secure!

I use the Password Generator tool over at pctools.com whenever I need a new password. It’s great. It instantaneously generates a password of whichever length you choose. So next time you’re in need of a password, give this tool a go.

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Copyright law ‘will not change’

June 8th, 2011

The New Zealand government recently passed legislation that gives ISPs the choice to send up to 3 copyright infringement notices to suspected copyright infringers. If they still persist, it is expected the Government will eventually give their ISP the ability to disconnect them.

A recent UN report concluded internet access was a human right.

UN special rapporteur Frank La Rue said he was “alarmed by proposals to disconnect users from internet access if they violate intellectual property rights”.

Despite this, Justice Minister Simon Power has said he’s “very satisfied” with the law and will not be looking into changing it.

You can read more over at stuff.co.nz

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Wellington & Christchurch to benefit from UFB price war

May 30th, 2011

Ultra Fast Broadband is expected to be available to the greater Wellington region by 2019, with priority given to schools, hospitals and other “priority users” which are scheduled to be fully connected by 2015.

Wellington and Christchurch are set to benefit most due to the presence of TelstraClear’s popular triple-play InHome cable network. The product is a direct competitor to Telecom’s new network.

TelstraClear chief executive Allan Freeth has said,

“We are here to stay and compete hard and we are certainly not scared of fibre. Are they going to lower the price? Well, I can lower the price.”

You can read more over at stuff.co.nz

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One in 14 downloads malicious, warns Microsoft

May 23rd, 2011

A warning from Microsoft, hackers are starting to trick people into downloading viruses, rather than installing them on your PC without you noticing.

Feedback from the Internet Explorer (IE) web browser has shown that 1 out of every 14 programs downloaded contain malicious code.

Our top two tips,

Only download content from trusted sources

&

Keep your browser up to date!

You can read more over at the nzherald

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Facebook hires PR to smear Google

May 16th, 2011

The online rivalry between Facebook and Google has taken a bit of a twist, with news out that Facebook hired a PR firm, Burson-Marsteller to bring to light negative information about Social Circle, a Google service that collects and uses data about people.

You can read more over at stuff.co.nz

Posted in Facebook, Google, social networking | No Comments »

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