Pakistan 'sparks YouTube outage'

BBC

Pakistan's attempts to block access to YouTube has been blamed for an almost global blackout of the video website for more than an hour on Sunday.

BBC News has learned that the outage was almost certainly connected to Pakistan Telecom and Asian internet service provider PCCW.

A leading net professional said the global outage was "probably a mistake".

Pakistan ordered internet service providers to block the site because of content deemed offensive to Islam.

The BBC News website's technology editor, Darren Waters, says that to block Pakistan's citizens from accessing YouTube it is believed Pakistan Telecom "hijacked" the web server address of the popular video site.

Those details were then passed on to the country's internet service providers so that anyone in Pakistan attempting to go to YouTube was instead re-directed to a different address.

But the details of the "hijack" were leaked out into the wider internet from PCCW and as a result YouTube was mistakenly blocked by internet service providers around the world.

The block on the servers was lifted once PCCW had been told of the issue by engineers at YouTube.

A leading net professional told BBC News: "This was probably a simple mistake by an engineer at Pakistan Telecom. There's nothing to suggest this was malicious."

IP hijacking involves taking over a web site's unique address by corrupting the internet's routing tables, which direct the flow of data around the world.

No-one at YouTube or PCCW was immediately available for comment.

Cause of ban

Reports said Pakistan made the move because YouTube content included Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that have outraged many.

But one report said a trailer for a forthcoming film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, which portrays Islam in a negative light, was behind the ban.

"They [Pakistan's telecommunications authority] asked us to ban it immediately... and the order says the ban will continue until further notice," said Wahaj-us-Siraj, convener of the Association of Pakistan Internet Service Providers.

The government decision has caused uproar in Pakistan, according to Wahaj-us-Siraj:

"Users are quite upset. They're screaming at ISPs which can't do anything.

"The government has valid reason for that, but they have to find a better way of doing it. If we continue blocking popular websites, people will stop using the internet."

Other countries that have temporarily blocked access to YouTube include Turkey and Thailand.

Related Stories:

Pakistan TV station forced off air

Internet censorship gathers steam

Gartner CIO survey predicts major global IT change

WTN News • 23 Feb 2008

Stamford, Conn. - Over the next three years, 85 percent of chief information officers see significant change coming as they look to meet rising business expectations for IT, according to a worldwide survey of 1,500 CIOs by Gartner Executive Programs.

The Gartner EXP CIO report, titled “Making the Difference: The 2008 CIO Agenda,” is a comprehensive examination of business priorities and CIO strategies. It encompasses more than $132 billion dollars of IT spending and the insights from more than 1,450 businesses across 33 countries and 23 industries, and the message is that business leaders expect IT to make the difference rather than deliver generic IT solutions.

Mark McDonald, group vice president and head of research for Gartner Executive Programs, said in a release that CIOs recognize the importance of IT in changing business processes, attracting customers, and developing new products and services. However, they are guarded in their confidence in IT's ability to create results in these areas.

IT budgets at companies that go beyond generic IT are growing at a rate of 4.9 percent on average, compared with IT budgets at generic IT shops, which will rise an average of 3.1 percent. “Momentum has been building for IT to play a larger role,” McDonald said. “This year, those expectations are beginning to outpace CIO confidence to deliver. This sharpens CIO concentration on IT capabilities like never before."

Read More ....

Google Health Begins Its Preseason at Cleveland Clinic

By Steve Lohr, The New York Times

For 18 months, Google has been working to come up with a product offering and a strategy in the promising field of consumer health information. Until now, the search giant hasn’t had anything to show for its labors other than bumps along the way — delays and a management change.

But on Thursday, Google’s technology for personal health records, which is still in development, is getting a big endorsement from the Cleveland Clinic. The big medical center is beginning a pilot project to link the health information for some of its patients with Google personal health records.

Cleveland Clinic is at the cutting edge of health information technology, and its more than 100,000 patients each has a personal health record. But a sizable portion of those patients are retirees, notes Dr. C. Martin Harris, the clinic’s chief information officer. Many of them, he said, spend about five months elsewhere, typically in Florida or Arizona, and the clinic’s sophisticated electronic health records don’t follow them there.

“It forces the patient to become his or her own medical historian,” Dr. Harris said.

The Google personal health record, he said, is a solution to that problem, among others. A person can approve the transfer of information on, say, medical conditions, allergies, medications and laboratory results from the clinic’s computers to a Google personal health record — a series of secure Web pages.

The pilot project will last six to eight weeks, and involve less than 10,000 patients. The project with Cleveland Clinic is “a milestone” for Google, said Marissa Mayer, a vice president, who took over management of the health team six months ago.

Google’s personal health record is still in development, and it will be introduced publicly and made widely available, after the pilot project is concluded, Ms. Mayer said.

To be sure, Google is only one of several companies trying to make a business from Web-based personal health records. Microsoft, for example, brought out its entry, called HealthVault, last October, and it has commitments from medical centers including New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Mayo Clinic. WebMD, Revolution Health and others also offer personal health records.

While it’s still not entirely clear what Google’s personal health record will be like, its approach seems to be ambitious and comprehensive. Google has its own user interface, while Microsoft, for example, appears to be focusing on back-end storage. Google is offering automated data links, so the patient does not have to type in personal data, as is required with some personal health records. And Google, along with Microsoft, has the deep pockets and technological knowhow to offer personal health records free to millions.

Other medical centers are ready to sign up. “This is truly a patient-controlled health record, and that’s a very significant step in the drive toward a more consumer-oriented system of health care,” said Dr. John D. Halamka, chief information officer of the Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Halamka is also chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, which plans to link its electronic patient records with Google personal health pages. He is also a member of Google’s Health Advisory Council.

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Super-speed Internet satellite blasts off in Japan

(CNN) -- Japan launched a rocket Saturday carrying a satellite that will test new technology that promises to deliver "super high-speed Internet" service to homes and businesses around the world.

A rocket carrying a super-fast Internet satellite lifts off from its launch pad on the Japanese island of Tanagashima.

The rocket carrying the WINDS satellite -- a joint project of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries -- lifted off its pad at 5:55 p.m. (0855 GMT).

If the technology proves successful, subscribers with small dishes will connect to the internet at speeds many times faster than what is now available over residential cable or DSL services.

The Associated Press said the satellite would offer speeds of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second.

The service initially would focus on the Asia-Pacific region close to Japan, a JAXA news release said.

"Among other uses, this will make possible great advances in telemedicine, which will bring high-quality medical treatment to remote areas, and in distance education, connecting students and teachers separated by great distances," JAXA said.

The rocket was launched from Japan's Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center.

Dell offers award-winning products for retail consumers

Novia D. Rulistia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Global systems and services company Dell Inc. is now targeting Indonesia's consumer segment by launching four types of laptop computer systems and slim-build desktops, in cooperation with long-time partner PT Metrodata E Business (MEB).

"This is a great way for us to connect to Indonesian consumers we may have not reached in the past," said Dell's regional managing editor, Andreas Diantoro, on Thursday at the company's product launching at Wisma BCA in Jakarta.

The new products are the award-winning XPS M1330 and the Inspiron 1420 laptops, as well as the Inspiron 530 and 530s slim-build desktops, with prices ranging from US$600 to $1,200.

Dell launched these products in Malaysia and Singapore at the end of last year, and it plans to penetrate other countries in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.

"Notebooks will grow fast, as supporting facilities, like wifi and hotspots, are made more and more widely accessible," Andreas said.

Previously in Indonesia, Dell Inc. provided services and products for corporations working in several areas, including the mining, oil, manufacturing and telecommunications industries.

"Notebook sales in Indonesia have been growing higher than in Malaysia and Singapore. We are targeting 10 percent of the laptops on sale in the Indonesian market," said Dell's country manager Megawaty Khie.

The Indonesian Computer Corporation Association (Apkomindo) reported that 60 percent of the 1.5 million computer units sold last year were notebooks. In 2006, notebook sales made up 50 percent of total computer sales.

MEB president director Agus Honggo Widodo said the company planned to offer the consumer products in five major cities in Indonesia -- Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Medan.

"We are delighted to have been chosen as Dell's partner in reaching out to the consumer segment in Indonesia," said Agus, whose company has been Dell's authorized distributor since 2002.

Agus said he was confident the new products would soon become the preferred products of young professionals and small office and home office users.

Market observer International Data Corporation, in its Worldwide Quarterly PC tracker, predicted that laptop sales would reach 50 percent of total sales of computers in the world this year.

Apkomindo predicted in January that computer sales in Indonesia would reach 3 million units this year, with notebooks accounting for at least 65 percent of sales and personal computers 35 percent.

Indonesia's market for notebooks is currently dominated by international brands like Acer, Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard. (lva)

Machines 'to match man by 2029'

By Helen Briggs, BBC science reporter, Boston

Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029, a leading US inventor has predicted.

Humanity is on the brink of advances that will see tiny robots implanted in people's brains to make them more intelligent said engineer Ray Kurzweil.

Tiny machines could roam the body curing diseases

He said machines and humans would eventually merge through devices implanted in the body to boost intelligence and health.

"It's really part of our civilisation," Mr Kurzweil said.

"But that's not going to be an alien invasion of intelligent machines to displace us."

Machines were already doing hundreds of things humans used to do, at human levels of intelligence or better, in many different areas, he said.

Man versus machine

"I've made the case that we will have both the hardware and the software to achieve human level artificial intelligence with the broad suppleness of human intelligence including our emotional intelligence by 2029," he said.

"We're already a human machine civilisation, we use our technology to expand our physical and mental horizons and this will be a further extension of that."

Humans and machines would eventually merge, by means of devices embedded in people's bodies to keep them healthy and improve their intelligence, predicted Mr Kurzweil.

"We'll have intelligent nanobots go into our brains through the capillaries and interact directly with our biological neurons," he told BBC News.

CHALLENGES FACING HUMANITY

• Make solar energy affordable
• Provide energy from fusion
• Develop carbon sequestration
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
• Provide access to clean water
• Reverse engineer the brain
• Prevent nuclear terror
• Secure cyberspace
• Enhance virtual reality
• Improve urban infrastructure
• Advance health informatics
• Engineer better medicines
• Advance personalised learning
• Explore natural frontiers
  
  
  
  

The nanobots, he said, would "make us smarter, remember things better and automatically go into full emergent virtual reality environments through the nervous system".

Mr Kurzweil is one of 18 influential thinkers chosen to identify the great technological challenges facing humanity in the 21st century by the US National Academy of Engineering.

The experts include Google founder Larry Page and genome pioneer Dr Craig Venter.

The 14 challenges were announced at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, which concludes on Monday.

The real impact of iPhone and Android

Dana Blankenhorn, CNet, February 15th, 2008, @ 7:02 am

Android demo from C|Net in Barcelona Feb. 2008The iPhone and the Google Android platform, which was finally shown-off (sort of) in Barcelona this week, aren’t mobile telephones.

They are Internet clients.

Internet clients use exponentially more data bandwidth than ordinary digital phones, which use thin streams of compressed data. Maybe several exponentials.

Operators are thinking of expanding their networks into homes and offices to handle the extra load.

The Android clients shown in Barcelona aren’t much. What they mainly prove is that the specification can be built and deployed quickly.

While the Apple iPhone roll-out has gone at a predictable pace, with one vendor delivering specified numbers to a handful of networks, the Android roll-out will be far more helter-skelter.

That’s because the Android is designed to work anywhere, first on any GSM network and then, with a little tinkering, anywhere else.

This makes it hard for operators to predict where and how demand will come from.

While Internet routing and fiber trunks have always been scaled well ahead of demand, mobile networks will have to route a ton more data on-and-off the fiber for the new clients. Equipment will have to be bought without an assurance of a quick return.

Yet thanks to the iPhone network operators have no choice. In the U.S. Verizon and Sprint are seeing their best customers jump en masse to AT&T, because of the iPhone. They have to compete.

While the Google Android specification may (or may not) allow effective competition on the handset end, Verizon must guess that it will, anticipate that demand, and start investing now.

It’s a gamble, in some ways bigger than the spectrum auction was.

Software giant comes to RI

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

On the back of higher demand for business software in Indonesia, U.S. software giant SAS is opening an office in Jakarta in efforts to better penetrate the market.

Through its local unit, PT SAS Institute, SAS has planned an investment of between US$8 million and $10 million in Southeast Asia's largest economy for the next two years.

SAS managing director for Singapore and emerging markets Bill Lee said the new office was part of SAS's strategy to invest maximally in Indonesia after realizing the tremendous demand growth here.

"We are always trying to establish offices in each country where our customers are located. Besides Indonesia, SAS offices are also located in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Manila," he said.

Around 70 to 100 people work in each of the offices, he added.

PT SAS Institute managing director Uday Mathkar said new projects from the banking industry would drive up demand in Indonesia.

"The demand rise will be fueled by the central bank policy that requires banks to comply with Bank Indonesia's risk management system by the end of this year," he said.

SAS, established in the United States in 1976, has been in Indonesia for 12 years through partners and resellers.

While its global revenue grew by 15 percent last year, the company's revenue in Indonesia jumped by 160 percent.

SAS products sold in Indonesia include software for a credit risk management system, an operational management system and anti-money laundering. (uwi)

Google Android phones make debut

BBC News

The first mobile phones to be loaded with Google's Android software for mobile phones have gone on show.

About a dozen companies such as ARM, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm showed off prototype handsets at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The free software system was launched in November 2007 and is being developed by an alliance of more than 30 companies including Google.

Google has launched an open operating system for mobile phones, called Android. It has also formed an Open Handset Alliance with 33 partners, promising "better, cheaper" mobile phones.

The first Android-enabled phone is expected to go on sale later this year.

One firm showing off a prototype phone was the UK processor designer ARM.

"It's really is a demonstration vehicle rather than a full phone," Ian Drew of ARM told BBC News.

However, he said the wireless phone did show off several applications.

"What we are demonstrating on the Android platform is maps, browser, camera applications, multimedia, e-mail, and calendar - basically everything you'd expect on a mobile phone."

Open world

The Google Android platform is based on open source Linux software that allows developers access to the underlying code.

This allows programmers much greater flexibility to build applications and features tailored to individual phones.

Other companies also showed off Android prototypes such as Marvell, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, NEC and ST Microelectronics.

Korean handset manufacturer Samsung has also said it hopes to have a phone based on Android by early next year.

Android was not the only Linux platform making waves in Barcelona.

The Mobile Linux foundation said that 18 phones from seven different firms would be demonstrated at 3GSM using its Limo software.

LG and Samsung were amongst handset manufacturers showing off Limo devices.

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