The news and many others are constantly telling us that cloud computing is on the horizon but I say no. I reckon that it is here already.

I think that news stations and even the world needs to face up to the FACT that cloud computing isn’t yet to come but that it is already here. Here is something very simple to prove that. If you buy a new computer and it is not able to connect to the internet then in all essence you would say it is broken or in complete and just look for something else.

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Its not often commuters have a reason to start spontaneously dacing in the train station, but  the prospect of better cell phone service just might cause us to just that (given the proper soundtrack). T-Mobile’s feel good ad of the season transforms the woeful working class routine of going to the office into a lively, choreographed, case of boogie fever amidst the hustle and bustle of the Liverpool Street station. The lesson here is that “life’s for sharing”, whether it be text messages, the two-step or the mutual desire to never hear that Pussycat Dolls “Don’t ‘Cha” song ever again.

Credit where it is due: Original post found at www.joshspear.com/item/t-mobiles-soul-train/

Tomorrow Microsoft will make Windows 7 beta available for download. But should you rush and install the successor of the memory eating monster Vista?

At the Consumer Electronic Show 2009 in Las Vegas Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the free public beta of the Windwows 7 OS, which is expected to be less memory consuming, leaner, faster than its previous versions. We had a glance at very early version a month ago and i have to admint even though it wasnt feature complete this early version was working fine.  This release is reportedly feature complete all the intended functionality is included as the final version and will expire on Aug 1, 2009.

According to Microsoft Windows 7 is stripped-down OS and it will require as little as 1 GB of system memory to run smoothly even on Netbooks.  Alot of changes under the hood are made, including revamped Vista kernel, overhauled graphic modules, less anoying User Accounts Control, new ways to connect different devices with your PC with Device Stage etc.  Windows 7 may even include some features from the Microsoft’s upcoming Azure cloud OS.

All this would be great if Vista wasn’t that big of a resource hog and the scepticism of the users wasn’t that high. Infact some companies either still offer XP to their customers or swtich back to XP.

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A few days ago GMZ (a hacker) helped himself to some high profile accounts on Twitter.:o Naughty, naughty hacker.:P This however is not the most amazing thing in the world nor is it, in itself that interesting, the intersting thing is how lax twitter are with their password security. The way he gained control of these acounts was ridiculusly simple.

1. He found a highly active account on twitter. Which, later turned out to be that of a Twitter employee who had access to ALL acount passwords.
2. He used an automated dictionary program that tries common English words as passwords. He ran the program all night, with no interference.
   

   Cracking the site was easy, because Twitter allowed an unlimited number of rapid-fire log-in attempts.

3. The Twitter employee used a common English word (happiness) as a password.
4. Once into the account, he could access the passwords of any account on Twitter.

GMZ says he didn’t post on the hacked accounts, but gave away the information to forum members who did.

President-Elect Barack Obama was among the most popular requests from Digital Gangster denizens, with around 20 members asking for access to the election campaign account. After resetting the password for the account, he gave the credentials to five people.

He also filled requests for access to Britney Spears’ account, as well as the official feeds for Facebook, CBS News, Fox News and the accounts of CNN correspondent Rick Sanchez and Digg founder Kevin Rose.  Other targets included additional news outlets and other celebrities. Fox won the hacker popularity contest, beating out even Obama and Spears. According to Twitter, 33 high-profile accounts were compromised in all.

You can see some of the chaos in these screenshots.

Continues after the jump»»

Igor:
I just wish all the best to everyone, alot of health and sex, you can earn the rest :) Noone has everything. Damn I have terrible hangover :)

William:
Best wishes for the new year, 2008 has been the turning point of the internet with the amount of advancements made in web design, web development and the advancements of the web browsers themselves! Not only has 2008 been the turning point of the internet but a turning point in history with Barack Obama in the white house, the Olympics and much much more.Lets see if we can make 2009 even better. Once again best wishes for the new year.

On monday (dec 22nd) Mozilla released the second development version of their mobile browser Fennec. However, this may be a browser being developed for mobile phone use but could this browser move into a new area of the computing wolrd? Say… netbooks for example?
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Hi folks

We got our hands on two of the most powerful graphic cards on the market – Asus EN 9800 GTX Geforce and ATI Radeon 4870 Sapphire and we decided put those two rivals on head to head benchmark and see what happens. I gotta admit I have great respect for both manufacturers since their products traditionally perform best in their class which made this testing even more interesting.

So the system we tested on is:
MB: Asus P5Q pro
System memory: 2GB Vdata 800mhz DDR2
Power supply: Asus 450W
HD: wd2500ks 250GB caviar SE16
CPU: Intel core2duo 7300 2.4 3MB cache
OS: Windows XP pro SP3 32-bit
Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Benchmark applications used are:
PassMark PerformanceTest v6.1.1010
SiSoftware Sandra Pro Business XII SP2c 2008.5.14.24
3DMARK05 v1.3.0

3DMARK06 v1.1.0

3DMARK Vantage

driver versions are:

Nvidia - GeForce Release 180 WHQL
Version:     180.48
Release Date:     November 19, 2008
Operating System:     Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center Edition
Language:     U.S. English
File Size:     68.3 MB

ATI - Radeon Catalyst Software Suite
ATI Catalyst™ 8.12 Display Driver for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition
34.7MB     8.12     12/10/2008     Display Driver
Catalyst Control Center
WDM Drivers

Yeah. That’s right. Songbird is finally out of beta and is now on version 1.0! After using it for near enough a year now, possibly the best music player in the whole world is out of beta and I can post a full run down of the features.

Now as the college DJ I have an enormous music library as you would expect. Well no other player I have used has ever handled my music quite so beautifully. Ever! So for those of you who are still using some outdated, inflexable and featureless player like MS Media Player, here is what you are missing out on.

Songbird is an opensource, highly customizable music player that is constantly under development. This means that as soon as there is a cool new feature that could be used, a performance upgrade possible or some other kind of update that could possibly happen, you get it, automatically, as soon as it is safe and stable. No more waiting for MS to get off their arse and release a new version of MS Media Player in a year or two.

Not only does Songbird get updates when there are possible new features but it is free and more importantly, it allows you to browse the web at the same time! Even better is that, should you visit a website that has music on it for download, Songbird will find it and allow you to download it straight into your library and or play it from the site! More features and some review after the jump!

New to Mozilla Firefox? New to the chance to kit out your web browser? Well did you know that you are more likely to  spend more time on the internet that you are on the road! When you are spending this amount of time on the web why not make it easier for yourself to do whatever it is you do online. The Mozilla community offers an amazingly diverse collection of add-ons that allow you to do everything from check the weather, monitor online auctions, listen to music, and find amazing new websites.

This week the add-ons total has reached 1billion add-ons. Now correct me if I am wrong but that is a lot of add-ons.

To make things easier for new (and old) users to customize their browser Mozilla has created a super simple application to Fashion your Firefox.

One of the great things about the Fashion Your Firefox application is that it allows users to bundle a bunch of different add-ons together all at once.  In essence, it’s like having a shopping cart that you can use to select any add-on from the Fashion Your Fox application, “check-out” with just one click, and after a quick Firefox restart, have a whole new browser that’s made just for you!

So if you are intending to use this application then come back and give us a shout telling us what type of Firefox add-on you are. I know that I’m a bit of a “Digital Pack Rat” myself.

As promised here is the unpacking video for the higher priced Asus M51Va notebook intended to hit the middle to upper class area. It has perfect specifications for gamers and does a great job in the entertainment area. Here’s whats inside:

• Asus M51Va notebook
• Power Adapter
• Power Cable
• Cable Holder
• Asus M51Va 6-cell battery
• Microfiber LCD Cleaning Cloth
• User Guide
• User Manual
• Quick Installation Guide
• Telephone Cable
• SVideo Output Cable
• Vista Drives Disk
• Bonus Software Disk