Tag Archives: Internet

Can Comcast Ditching 250 GB Data Cap Be A Sign For A Future Of Which The Old Media Becomes The Radio Of Today?

1
Posted by on in Anything Goes, Internet
Picture of a Comcast service vehicle taken in ...

Picture of a Comcast service vehicle taken in an open area from a public street in Macomb, Illinois 61455 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PCMAG reported that Comcast will ditch the 250GB data cap for their customers soon, because Comcast is exploring the option of increasing the data cap beyond 250GB.  When questioned, Comcast refused to say that people needed more bandwidth, instead they said nowadays it simply makes sense to have their customers with bigger data cap since online videos are becoming evermore popular.  In my opinion, I think sooner or later, the ISP industry will get evermore competitive and people will use more data than the data cap allows.  The people who need more bandwidth will just have to leave the ISPs that do not provide bigger data cap.

Google might speed up the adoption of which to abandon the data cap altogether.  Obviously, I’m looking at how Google is providing 100 times faster than today Internet connection speed for Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO.  Perhaps, once Google thinks that they will reap even more profits by providing ultra fast fiber broadband beyond Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO., then the competition will definitely push more ISPs to rethink about data cap logic.

Sure, Google has deeper intention for offering ultra fast fiber broadband.  I think Google wants to make sure they have the experience in providing ISP service, because Google never knows that they might need to roll out their very own ISP service to just about anyone who relies on Google services.  Perhaps, Google fears that one day ISPs will be able to dictate what people can watch and download over the Internet.  If such a day will happen, Google’s ultra fast fiber broadband will be able to aid Google in providing Google whatever services over the web to just about anybody as usual.  Google will always be the master of its own Internet services!

Google is so depending on the Internet for its prosperity, therefore no matter is too small to be overlooked when it comes to how Google does business over the Internet — ultra fast fiber broadband service/experiment is definitely a defensive and possibly an offensive strategy.  I don’t think Google ultra fast fiber broadband has data cap, but I’m not sure.  Nonetheless, I think Google wants to promote a future where data can roam just about anywhere without being restrained by the data cap limitation.  It makes sense, because Google core business relies on unrestrained Internet.  One good example would be YouTube.  Sure, Adwords is what making Google the most money, but YouTube, in the near future, might be the most important medium of which to allow Google to increase its core business might (i.e., Internet advertising — Adwords and Adsense).  Of course, nobody would know for sure that YouTube will play out as we think Google has hoped, but at the rate of everyone is slowly ditching the traditional TV for online media — it’s only a matter of time when online media will rule the world and the traditional media (i.e., TV) has to become something like the radio of today.  So, in order for Google to prosper in the upcoming media order, Google has to make sure that YouTube will become evermore popular and people will want to stream YouTube videos evermore.

Google’s YouTube might be so powerful as to how it will attract advertising dollars like nobody has ever seen something like it before.  How come?  Imagine regular TVs will tune into YouTube channels and not the traditional TV channels.  Such a future is probably where YouTube wants to be!  I think such a future for YouTube is very very possible!  Google is creating and promoting original TV type of contents for YouTube, therefore this sort of actions from Google confirms the importance of YouTube in regarding to Google’s media/advertising business.

Google is probably not the only one who thinks about how important it is for folks to be able to use the Internet without data cap, because there are so many other companies out there whose sole business relies entirely on the Internet.  Especially Netflix, because Netflix relies on the ISPs not to tighten the data cap as Netflix customers need to be able to stream Netflix movies.  Eventually, the old media will see that it’s futile to hold back the wave of the new media, therefore I think data cap strategy is too narrow.  Even the ISPs will be able to profit hugely when data cap limitation will no longer be around.  How come?  Like I had mentioned earlier, people will just have to leave the ISPs that are not providing them enough bandwidth.  Some of you might argue that people might not be able to leave their old ISP, because there won’t be a second ISP within the same broadband coverage area.  Well, I think such thinking will be outdated.  How come?  We can just take a look at Google ultra fast fiber broadband experimentation and know that the future for ISP industry will be a lot more competitive.  I sure hope the future will allow people to have a lot more choice of choosing an ISP, and I think we are heading for such a future anyway.  This is why data cap is just too narrow of a strategy — a strategy which will make ISP industry looks petty and the rest look eager to push ahead for a brighter better broadband/Internet future.

Afterthought:  I don’t think to do away with data cap is to encourage piracy.  People who want to pirate are the people who will never pay for the things that they want to pirate in the first place, therefore forcing onto them with data cap plans is like asking them to be more prudent with what they want to pirate.  Furthermore, people who have great technological knowledge might hack into various networks so they can use such networks’ resources (e.g., bandwidth, storage space) for their piracy activities anyway.  This is why data cap is senseless for a future that relies evermore on a busier Internet/broadband highways.

Sources:

Related articles
About these ads

Advertising On The Internet Might Not Be A Good Thing?

0
Posted by on in Internet, Security

Internet technology has made it very easy for people to advertise their businesses, but I have to wonder is it a good idea to do so?  Of course, we all know the Internet is never going to sleep, because too many machines are willing to take the places of the ones that will go to sleep — tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, but the data keep on churning through the Internet pipes.  Since the Internet is always up and wide awake, it has always been the general understanding that it’s a good idea to advertise to the folks who are behind the machines that keep the Internet wide awake since its inception.  The idea is golden, but can the machines and the algorithms that are behind the things that make advertising on the Internet possible be smart enough to discern fake clicks and malware ads and phishing ads — so everyone can be safe and not sorry for using the Internet as the medium of advertising?

Here are the scary examples of why advertising on the Internet can be dangerous!  This one is specifically targeting the small business owners who advertise their businesses on the Internet.  Imagining someone hates a company or the owner of such company so bad, therefore he or she decides to use proxies of machines that have been programmed to generate fake clicks to bankrupt the company or the owner of such company — meanwhile he or she might also make some advertising commissions in the process as the Internet advertising company might not know those clicks are fake and so the payment of advertising commissions will be posted.  The second scenario is specifically targeting everyone who uses computer.  Imagining bad guys will submit innocent looking ads to the Internet advertising companies, but after a certain time the ads might point to either dangerous websites or the same websites but now are with dangerous contents; even worse such web destinations the ads point to might contain malware and computer viruses and phishing scams.

There might be more insidious scenarios that bad guys can exploit through the Internet advertising machines (i.e., advertising companies) that I might not have on the top of my mind, therefore such scenarios will not be mentioned here.  Nonetheless, the two examples I’d mentioned of (dangerous scenarios that are involved with the Internet advertising machines) are good enough to raise suspicion about the naiveties of advertising on the Internet.  The two examples also show that all parties might be suffering when bad guys are scheming.  This means the advertising agencies might see their reputations ruin if they can’t stop the bad guys from spreading malware and computer viruses and trojans and phishing scams through their ads.  This means the normal Internet users might get infect with computer viruses and trojans and malware and being scammed with phishing schemes.  This means the regular business owners might find their companies spend stupendous amount of money and yet not many real clicks are being generated, leading to much costly advertising budgets and losing focus of their core businesses.

I’m sure some best Internet advertising companies on the web might have ways to combat problems that I allured to in this article/post, but the effectiveness of weeding out all relative problems might be doubtful.  This is why I think offline advertising strategies might still be better than online advertising (i.e., advertising on the Internet) in some circumstances.  I guess it’s all depending on your advertising budget to start out with, and if you can afford fake clicks and other unaccounted Internet problems that are the baggages for advertising on the Internet, then I guess you might not lose the focus of generating attractions for your business.  Otherwise, I guess you might want to start with offline advertising first before venturing onto online advertising.  Of course, there are offline advertising machines (i.e., magazines, newspapers, local newspapers) that might be charging unreasonable fees, therefore you should not succumb right away to such leeches.  You can always spend good amount of time (i.e., if you have time to spare) to investigate and find the right offline advertising mediums/firms that can give you the right kind of advertising deals.

In the end, when come to advertising online and offline for small businesses, you might have to experiment or plan out carefully so you will be able to know the right advertising recipe for your small business.  Sometimes, Internet avid users but are the small business owners themselves might know how to use social networks to generate enough buzzes and attractions, therefore they move their businesses to great profits without spending much time and money on advertising.  In my opinion, word of mouth advertising sometimes can still be the best thing that has ever existed in regarding to how generating buzzes and profits for a business.  This is why some people think social networks might provide somewhat a similar medium to word of mouth advertising.  I think they might be right, but why the might be?

I think social networks tend to promote unreliable friending (i.e., friends who know each other only online but not in real life), and so my train of thoughts is that this sort of online only bonding might not generate enough force/will to convince people to see things in certain ways (i.e., how the Internet ads want the Internet users to feel).  Of course, I neglect to mention the positive effect of social networks, because I think it’s quite obvious.  Social networks allow many more real friends to expedite their daily contacts through online chat and text and discussion when they are not having time to meet up personally (i.e., face to face), and this might just generate the kind of force/will to move ideas, products, and businesses.

In conclusion, I guess it might be wise to end this article/post with just one line.  To advertise or not to advertise on the Internet, that’s the question!

(Yes, I know, twisting Shakespeare’s famous quote from Hamlet for the conclusion of the post above might not be a creative thing to do, but tis only quote I can think up to make my post even more flashy, so cheer!)

Cloud Is Not A Miracle, It’s Just Another Tool In Your Famous Computing Toolbox

1
Posted by on in Internet, Mobile, Web Services

This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia!

(Whenever I refer to a cloud, I mean a third party cloud service, OK?)

The cloud, the thing that you do nowadays so the data will always be within your reach as if you just look up, point, see, and say, “That’s my cloud!”  Sure, it’s quite reassurance to know the cloud might save you from a rainy day when the cloud actually shines and the rain has nothing to do with the cloud, but it has to do more with how your computers and local backup suddenly say bye bye to your precious data.  The mighty cloud shines like a sun as it allows you to recover your data, but are you sure the cloud will always shine, bright, and dry?

You need to know that the cloud is for your convenience only, therefore it’s convenient but not really safe!  Convenient?  Yes, you can access your data anytime at anywhere as long any place has any Internet connection so any computer there is can allow you to access any file!  A promise of conveniency and an extra point of redundancy might be just what some people need, but be very careful in relying on someone to take care your precious data!  After all, it’s you who has the most interest in having such data out of harm’s way.

You might forget that an extra point of redundancy which the cloud promises might not be hard to set up yourself.  You can rely on any third party cloud service and ignore that any third party cloud service might just be the many servers that hum cozily in some datacenters, but these servers and datacenters are just as susceptible to hardware failure, data corruption, and hacks as your local machines.  In fact, third party cloud services might have more problems than your own machines since such cloud services have to scale up (e.g., bigger datacenter, more hardware, more sophisticated software) to keep up with demands.  If demands aren’t there, third party cloud services will eventually dwindle away along with your data.

Cloud is shiny, bright, and pretty alright, but it’s so gorgeous only when the sky is just as bright.  Cloud can get darkish and nasty when the rain pours down hard on you (this rain has nothing to do with the rain outside).  So, don’t think the cloud is a miracle for all data problems, but just use the cloud as any other tool.  Try to use the cloud when you actually need to backup some not so important data, because these data you want to have easy access to and care not so much if someone else might accidentally have a peek at.  The truth is, within the cloud you never will have total control over your own data (i.e., except for the cloud that you actually host and run yourself).  In a way, you can view the cloud as a safe where you can just reach for whatever at your convenience, and you know it will always be there unless…

The cloud should never be a place where you have had the need to keep your data safe and away from prying eyes.  If you want to have redundancy for your precious data in case of data corruption, hardware failure, and the likes, you should store or backup multiple copies of such data locally.  If you have to store or backup your data remotely, make sure at least you have full control of your machines (or even the cloud).  One good example would be installing a machine in a datacenter which allows you to sign up for a co-hosting (i.e., also known as co-locating) plan, because this way you have full control of your machines (i.e., ensuring you have full control of your data at the cost of paying some monthly fee).

People might argue that the cloud will give you more free time since you don’t really have to worry about hardware failure, security measures, other technicalities and responsibilities in keeping your data and machine safe.  Plus, it’s rather convenient!  Nonsense!  The cloud can have just as many problems, and you might not know anything about it since such problems might be taken care of without your presence.  Sure, you don’t have to take care of such problems yourself, but when the real problems come knocking at you anyway, it’s when you know you should be at the helm when the problems go haywire to no end.

The argument is that bad things happen, with or without the cloud, therefore the cloud isn’t a miracle but just another tool among tools within your famous computing toolbox.  Use it wisely, and you have the bright, shiny, pretty, and happy cloud.  Use it wrongly, and you have one heck of a monster that eats and might even share your data with another monster (i.e., a hacker’s machine).  You should take the approach to be safe than sorry when it comes down to how to use a third party cloud.  How so?  Check out the random tips below:

  • Only store data that you might want to share with someone in the cloud
  • Encryption can be broken, but if you must store super important data that you might not want anyone to take a peek at, you must encrypt such data in the cloud
  • Backup only unimportant data in the cloud
  • If you must share cloud data, make sure you have the option of creating a share directory so only people that you grant access can take a look at a specific directory and data
  • Do not allow people to have the ability to change your data in the share directory (e.g., no write permission, no execute permission, no delete permission)
  • If you must allow some people to download your data in the share directory, you must know that you’re liable for sharing such data (i.e., do not share data that aren’t yours)
  • Cloud encourages behavior where you log onto any computer to access data, therefore such data should not be important to you at all if you intend to log into your cloud through public computers
  • Cloud isn’t a miracle or should it be replacing your usual local storages, because it’s just an extra point in data redundancy plan of yours, but for unimportant data only
  • Cloud can be hacked and might be more targeted by hackers than your regular machines (i.e., all types of data for hackers to mine in a single point)

Charter Cable Touts 100 Mbps Download And 5 Mbps Upload Speeds For $59.99/Month If You Bundle

0
Posted by on in Internet, Networking

After reading the article “Charter Cable boosts downloads to 100Mbps, keeps uploads limited to a modest 5Mbps,” I compelled to call Charter up to see if their service would be available in my area, and I did call.  Unfortunately, Charter isn’t servicing my area.  I guess I have to stick with my slow ISP for now.

Some people might not notice that even though United States is very techie, but the American general population is behind many other parts of the world in regarding to the Internet speed.  A commenter who wrote a comment below the Engadget’s article I mentioned above boasted he had only paid $19 for 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload speeds in Lithuania.  If that is true, it’s just one example among many other examples that proves American general population is really behind in regarding to the Internet speed.

It’s not a surprise that we might see people who are giddy up and called Charter, because Charter is now providing faster Internet connections at cheaper prices than any other Internet service provider I’ve heard about.  For an example, its Express package which touts up to 15 Mbps download speed is almost as fast as AT&T’s most expensive package which touts up to 24 Mbps download speed, but the price for Charter Express package is only one third of AT&T’s fastest Internet package.  Charter Express package costs you $19.99/month.  The juiciest Charter’s Internet package would be 100Mbps download speed, and it costs roughly the same as AT&T’s fastest Internet package, but AT&T’s fastest Internet package touts only at 24Mbps download speed, about four times slower than Charter Ultra package.

If you look on Charter’s website, it shows that the prices for their Internet service are low as listed if only you bundle.  Does this mean you have to order their Internet service with something else too?  Perhaps, you have to bundle the Internet and TV services together to keep the price of the Internet service low and enticing?

I forgot to ask Charter’s salesperson about contract.  This is why I’m not sure if Charter requires you to sign a contract for however long before they can hook you up with the awesome Internet speed.  I’m so hoping Charter isn’t going the contract route, because it’s one more reason for some people to not upgrade their Internet speed.  I know I hate services that require me to agree to a contract enough that if I can help myself, I would stay away from such services at any cost.

Charter provides free Internet security suite known as Charter Security Suite to protect users from viruses, worms, trojans, and hackers.  I’m not sure the strength of their Internet security product.  Usually, Internet service providers would team up with well known security companies such as Symantec.  Maybe Charter is doing something similar for their security products too.  Nonetheless, I guess you have to find this out for yourself when you become a Charter customer.

Charter salesperson told me customers can also order $5/month Cloud Drive.  If I heard correctly, Cloud Drive would be free for the first month of service.  Cloud Drive allows customers to back up their data.  When I asked the salesperson how much Cloud Drive space a customer could have?  She said it is unlimited.  If our conversation has any merit, I guess $5/month, unlimited Cloud Drive is a sweet deal.  Still, I do not yet know how reliable Charter Cloud Drive would be, therefore I cannot really vouch for Cloud Drive until I really use it.

In conclusion, Charter touts amazing Internet packages that make me drool.  If Charter services my area, I would think about becoming a customer of theirs, but it has to do without contract and bundle.  I think Charter will eventually push other Internet service providers to provide better services, because it’s all about competition.  Unfortunately, it seems even though it’s already highly competitive among Internet service providers within the United States, other parts of the world have already touted faster Internet services for a long time already.  In regarding to the Internet speed for the general population, let hope someday we Americans will eventually lead and not play catch up, but today isn’t the day!

Ubuntu One Gives 5GB Of Storage For Free, Premium Plan Allows Users To Stream Music

0
Posted by on in Linux, Web Services

Ubuntu 11.10 has two ways for users to backup data.  One is through the use of Deja Dup backup tool, but I’m not going to go into this method in this blog post.  The second method is Ubuntu One which allows users to backup files and folders through Internet.  Ubuntu One saves users’ data securely in network of servers known as cloud service, and users can retrieve data securely to Ubuntu computers and mobile devices.

In addition to allowing users to backup data, Ubuntu One can sync files and folders across Ubuntu devices, including mobile devices.  Ubuntu One allows users to stream music to their mobile devices, but they have to pay $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year for this feature.  Streaming music feature will work with Android phones, iPhone, and iPad.  Users can subscribe to 20GB of storage for $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year, and this plan doesn’t support streaming of music.

Of course, Ubuntu One has a free plan which allows users to have 5GB of free storage.  Users can use smartphones and computers to access their files from Ubuntu One.  It’s like having additional hard drive or a partition on a computer.

Backing up specific files and folders to Ubuntu One is pretty easy, because you just drag and drop such folders to Ubuntu One folder.  When drag and drop files and folders to Ubuntu One folder, you basically retain the original copies on your system, and the backup copies reside on Ubuntu One’s servers (i.e., cloud service).

Whenever you delete files and folders from Ubuntu One folder on your system, the duplicate copies of files and folders on Ubuntu One’s servers will also be deleted.  This is how files and folders sync between your Ubuntu system and Ubuntu One’s account.  This is why it can be dangerous to delete files and folders inside Ubuntu One folder, unless you do not care of losing these backup files and folders.

You can be extra careful by just leave the files and folders where they are and make copies so you can paste these files and folders to Ubuntu One folder.  This way you have three copies of the same files and folders — two on system and one on Ubuntu One’s servers.  This way also fills up more space locally!

Anyhow, I’d created a video which briefly goes over Ubuntu One’s features and shows Ubuntu One in action.  You can check out the video right after the break.

In my opinion, users should not use Ubuntu One to backup the whole Ubuntu system, because Ubuntu One is more efficient in backing up regular folders and files of users.  To backup the whole Ubuntu system efficiently, I recommend users to use Deja Dup backup tool which comes by default with Ubuntu 11.10.

Netflix Isn’t Desperate, But Will It Be So?

0
Posted by on in Internet, Web Services

Netflix has been scarred with mistakes lately, and mostly they had done it to themselves.  By now you probably had heard how Netflix raised prices, tried to split Netflix into two then reverted to one service again, and then decidedly kept prices high as it had intended all along.  Customers were furious, and some of them still do.  Many shareholders bailed Netflix’s stock, gave way to a stock that once was neared $300 but now it’s hovering around $117.

Has Netflix forever destroyed itself?  This question is quite important in this period of time for Netflix, because so many other players are willing to spend huge amount of money to build something that might be fit to compete against Netflix.  Just to name a few, Vdio, Amazon, Google, Dish’s Blockbuster, and Apple.

I don’t think Netflix is yet to be desperate, because it has several advantages that the competitors aren’t yet capable in matching or surpassing.  Let see, Netflix is still considering to be the best service.  It has more film titles than anyone else for instant streaming, and its CD/DVD by mail is still intact — has huge collections of films.  Although Netflix has raised prices higher, it’s considerably cheap, still.  People can instantly stream Netflix’s films on most devices and gadgets in the markets — this hasn’t been the case for the competitors.

I do think that by giving enough time, anyone can catch up to Netflix as long somebody is willing to spend enough cash to play the catch-up game and the customers are willing to switch to try out newer services so they can compare the formers versus the newcomers.  This is why I do think Netflix has to innovate more than just being the service which has acquired more film titles for instant streaming than anyone else.  Why?  Some customers might be contented with just enough film titles, because not everyone is able to sit down and watch all of them titles.  Nonetheless, good titles are very important, because only the titles people want to watch most will be able to promote the charm of the service.

How Netflix should innovate?  Netflix needs to add features and whistles and bells to its instant streaming service!  Let see, when I watch a TV show, I do not want to switch manually one episode to another, because I hate to get out of my couch or bed just to switch to the next episode of the series.  What can I say, people like me are born to be lazy, and I’m afraid there are tons of us out there!  Let see, Netflix might want to try incorporate social network features similar to Facebook and Google Plus into its own service, because it’s logical to allow users to communicate better.  Perhaps friends on Netflix might want to share favorite movies with each other and so on.  Let see, Netflix might want to bring live shows to users/customers.  Live shows have the potential to be game changer, because some people just want to be able to watch news the way they have been doing for ages on regular TVs.  There are so many things that Netflix can enhance its service, and by doing so I think Netflix can basically mute its competitors in way that it’s not even funny!  Let not forget to be simplistic and yet at the same time appearing to be capable!

In summary, Netflix isn’t that desperate yet, but it will be if it allows the competitors to catch up!  Netflix can enhance its service by tweaking its service in ways that appeal to customers more.  Netflix can dominate even more by controlling more popular film titles and TV shows.  Keeping the prices affordable, Netflix will be able to ensure its longevity.  Happy customers in the end will make things very costly for Netflix’s competitors.