Emerging Technology News

It seems that no field is too established or stone set in customary procedure to avoid the widespread adoption of social media networks… and law is no exception. For the first time in the global legal community a Twitter Moot case will be argued using the 140-character submissions of the social media platform Twitter, making ‘legal briefs’ a more literal term. A moot court is a mock or simulated court hearing that is practiced by law students all over the world. Conducting the mock court hearing and making arguments in only 140 characters is entirely new; the Twitter Moot Court will make social media and legal history. Time will tell whether it will transcend to a court room or international law firm.

Welcome to the internet in 2012; on any given day you could be on YouTube watching a no-name cover a Beyonce song or a short Sweded (low-budget independent remake of popular films) video going viral. Now imagine internet censorship closing down YouTube simply for hosting these videos and without any judicial procedure; welcome to the internet of the future. Currently a debate in the Senate on US censorship of the internet is taking place and the bill that enforces it comes two-fold; one called SOPA and one called PIPA. SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is a bill that is supposedly designed to protect copyright holders and companies against intellectual theft that is ‘rife’ on the internet. However much of the power of the internet lies in the innovations and freedom of expression that SOPA could snuff out with internet censorship laws.

When was the last time you checked your MySpace account? Have you logged into Friendster in the last three years? Social media sites are not built to last; people tend to move on or forget about their profiles, but could Facebook be the first eternal social media networking site. Right now your Facebook profile is set to outlast you or indeed even the site itself. Since the data is stored on a public face, even if you were to change your name and hide in the jungle essentially you would still exist to the world. In a decade we’ll all have that awkward moment where we’ve posted something we’re ashamed of on social media and business might feel at risk. At least by this point we’d all pretty much be in the same boat.

It’s a warning as old as the internet; keep your passwords safe and secure, don’t open any strange files and keep your anti-virus software up to date. Yet a Facebook hack dubbed Ramnit has claimed more than 45,000 logins and continues to spread. Although it seems France and the United Kingdom are the most affected in the online Facebook hack; Ramnit is spreading fast and it seems the only protection is to steer clear from strange applications on the social network. Don’t give out permissions to access your account for random applications; that is if you don’t want someone to hack your Facebook account. A bulletin issued by security researchers at Securlet warned that although Ramnit is one of the ways to hack a Facebook account or profile, it goes beyond that being capable of infecting Windows executables, destabilising MPLS VPN connectivity, infiltrating FTP servers and even messing with Microsoft Office.

Many small businesses do not have the finances to host their own server infrastructure and IT specialists to maintain the server. That is why colocation is the perfect hosting solution for small businesses.

Colocation solutions may cost slightly more than web hosting but because you would place your own server in a larger company’s rack at colocation hosting providers, and share a company’s bandwidth, it costs less than bandwidth straight to your business. In the long-run this solution works out much better on a financial scale for smaller businesses. You can rent a server machine directly from the colocation provider or you may take your own already set-up server. The data center then provides an IP address, bandwidth and power to your server, the only difference is that you own the hardware.

Getting social online has always carried with it a stigma of fear; too much information sharing, cyber predators and other dangers have kept many potential users offline. However with advancements in e-mail, internet phone calling, Skype and locating long-lost friends and relatives the future of the internet will outweigh the drawbacks; this is now supported by expert opinion. Online social networks lowers the constraints of cost, geography and time; the fact that you are online reading this article means you understand or at least take for granted what a huge benefit this provides. As dedicated internet lines become a reality for more people around the world so too does the open information sharing that brings people together.

The Twitter feed has become an important tool for many bloggers, websites and businesses in general. An item stockist such as Amazon can update their followers in real-time of sales, stock levels and general enquiries. The Twitter feed on a website has become the mouth of many companies speaking directly to their customers. A recent study done by the PEW research institute attempted to see how news sites use their live Twitter feeds; these have become a regular part of the daily news outreach. While I wouldn’t use Twitter as my VPN service provider, I would say as a tool to reaching potentially millions in a single 160 character phase, Twitter feeds on a webpage is pretty much essential.

Gowalla is a social media application that allows you to track your location and share it with friends via Twitter and Facebook. The application got really popular winning awards in 2010 and now proving social media business is booming; Facebook has acquired the company for an undisclosed amount. Marketing on social media has seen an increase in returns where advertising everything from shoes to MPLS VPN connectivity has proven lucrative practices. Facebook is still the social media network giant that grows, welcoming smaller specialised applications into their family. Already partnering with Skype and Spotify, Gowalla contributes ‘geosocial networking’ to the juggernaut that is Facebook.

For me a fixed line at home is an adequate internet solution which is stable, efficient and not reliant on weather clouds or interference. Wireless broadband always seems that little bit too alien, although that’s probably what was said about cellulars when they first hit the scene. Regardless with the advent of smartphones, wi-fi or wireless broadband is becoming a staple diet for consumers and a bread-winning success for internet service providers. Mobile wireless broadband is used for short messaging via Whatsapp, online gaming or downloading applications to your phone. In fact high speed wireless broadband puts the smart in smartphone, without which our high tech toys become brick sized phones. The revolution is growing; cloud systems create online virtual hosted backup services while physical ones continue to show expansion.

When Google Inc. entered the internet browser industry with a whisper in 2008, everyone suspected it of being born with the silver spoon in its mouth. The vast majority of internet users search with Google so it would be a matter of time before they converted to Chrome; it just made logical sense. Now the history of internet browsers is being written and that prophecy is starting to be fulfilled. According to website analytics company StatCounter, Chrome has overtaken Firefox as the second most used internet browser; both of them a free internet browser. Still sitting pretty in first place, although not the best internet browser for security reasons, is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Experts in the industry of shared hosting providers have offered some insight; Internet Explorer is bundled with Windows and the results of that is apparent, low-level internet browsers are happy to accept IE as the end-all of their needs.