BitTorrent power is now a add on in Firefox - Fire Torrent

It seems that BitTorrent has now leaped a huge gap in how it can be used. This was achieved by Firefox extension Fire Torrent. Basically what this extension does is let anyone using Firefox 3.0 or greater start downloading torrents from any source.Just like you would download a normal file, with out the use of separate BitTorrent software like FrostWire etc.

This Firefox add on is still in its alpha stage but I predict it will become one of the most popular Firefox extensions ever if it lives up to expectations. At the moment in Alpha testing it is invites only. But when it is released to the general public BitTorrent is going to take off in a big way. Thanks mainly to the global market pentration of Firefox.

If I was a big movie studio or music lable I would be very worried about the potential of such an Add On like Fire Torrent. The potential for it to be used to download copyrighted material is huge and big movie studios and music lables will stand to lose heaps. On the local scene record labels like CHM should be worried about this Firefox extension because of its ability to be used to trade copyright material. You may think in the sceme of things this is not something for CHM to worry about. But when you think about how easy it is going to be to trade copyright music etc, you will change your mind. For example now people won't need to have thrid party software to share files e.g. LimeWire, FrostWire, etc (except Fire Torrent). It is going to make file sharing a hell of a lot easier.

Look out Papua New Guinean music labels this is a sleeping Giant.

Kina Facility Rate up from 7% to 8%

According to the NBC website The Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) has increased its Kina Facility Rate from 7% to 8% for December 2008. Which means that the BPNG is trying to tighten its monetary policy stance. NBC also reports that domestic fuel prices has fallen like international trends, but the costs of food hasn't followed.

I am no economist but I was thinking if the BPNG wants to increase the amount of savings may be they should try from a different angle like giving people a tax incentive to contribute more money to their Superannuation funds. For example in other countries like Australia you are not taxed for contributing to Superannuation. Here in PNG you are taxed for contributing to Superannuation. Then you are taxed again when you withdraw your super so as normal in PNG you are in a lose lose situation where the only person that wins in the tax lady.

I put in the lady bit because the current CEO of the PNG IRC is a lady. Even though if you were to go to the IRC website you would find that it describes the IRC sturcture: 

"CEO of IRC is the Commissioner General. Below him"

It seems that Betty has forgottern to tell her IT Department that she is a female.

Laptops out sell desktops

According to The Australian the third quarter of 2008 marked the first time ever where there was more Laptops shipped then desktop computers. It stated that PC shipments increase by nearly 40 per cent then compared with the same period in 2007. This also marks the start of a new era for the Laptop because the laptop is no longer seen only as a tool for the business market, or a computer for the well off people in our society. The laptop is now a computer for everyone.

In the local Papua New Guinea computer market in recent times the amount of people purchasing laptops instead of desktop seems to be on a rise. This I think can be mainly attributed to the fact that the price of laptops has decreased with a stronger PNG Kina in recent months. The is also the added vibe that it is cool to have a laptop that also leads to consumers in Papua New Guinea wanting purchase a laptop instead of a desktop.

For example looking at the Daltron website you will see that the standard entery level Niulogic Discovery - XPH K1,790 (does not included the monitor) which is about the same price as HP Laptop that Daltron is advertising as well. The thing is the you don't have to buy a monitor for the laptop and the laptop comes with more hard disk space then the entery level Niulogic. So you can see why consumers are choosing to go for a more mobile computer a larger disk space then desktop. Why wouldn't you go for a laptop instead of a desktop? Taking into consideration that you just a normal computer user and not some IT Geek that wants to build their on box.

NBC website is being updated again

Great to see that The National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) is updating its website again. After not updating it for over 3 months. It is great site to provide short up to date news stories of what is taking place in Papua New Guinea. Technology wise 2008 marks an important year for NBC with it officially launching both its website and the National Television Service. Keep up the good work NBC and please continue to update the website on a regular basis instead of leaving it for months.

National Television Service arrives in Madang

According to the National Broadcasting Corporation of PNG's website Madang is now connected to the National Television Service. Madang was the 8th province in Papua New Guinea to receive the television signal from NBC. The next stop on the National Television roll out plan will be Vanimo. NBC has indicated that the broadcast time for next year will increase. Great news to hear that there will be more air time next year and more competition for EMTV. I believe that competition is good for consumers in Papua New Guinea and competition for EMTV is a step in the right direction.

As seen in the PNG airline industry prices have gone down since Airlines PNG has joined with Vrigin Pacific Blue to provide oversea services to Brisbane and the quality of service has improved, since now there in no longer a monopoly on the airline industry in PNG. But in order for it to be a truly level playing field the PNG government will need to stop providing government grants to Air Nuigini and let Air Nuigini stand on its on feet.

Competition in Papua New Guinea is good for all Wantoks.

A photo of Change

This photo sums up how times are changing:

Merry Christmas Wantoks

Wishing all my Wantoks in Papua New Guinea and around the world a Merry Christmas. Hope that Father Christmas was kind to you this year. But at times like this, it is also a time for self reflection and even if Father Christmas did not bring you anything. I for one am thankful that I am more fortunate then other people in this world. To be able to spend this time with my family and loved ones. Is a blessing in itself.

In Port Moresby you see people everyday struggling to make a living, with the prices of goods and services going up and up. For example every Saturday there is a old lady well in to her 60's that walks the streets in my neighborhood, checking the rubbish on rubbish bin day to collect tin cans and plastic bottles to sell to recyclers. I use to get frustrated about the old lady going through my rubbish on the side of the road. But then with a bit of self reflection I was thinking how luck I am that this is not me that has to sort through other peoples rubbish and waste to make enough money to live for today.

Basically what I guess I am trying to say here is Merry Christmas to you all, but spare a thought or say a prayer for those less fortunate then you are.

Free IBM open source office suite - Lotus Symphony

IBM Lotus Symphony is a freeware open source office suite which is based on the OpenOffice project. IBM Lotus Symphony offers three products Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations. So Wantoks basically it is offering you a free alternative to Microsoft's Word, Excel, and Power Point. Lotus Symphony is a large download for the Wantoks that use dial up at 200MB. So you might want to consider requesting for a Free CD. All in all it is another good freeware product that can save you a few kina, instead of you having to buy Microsoft Office.

ANZ ATM at Holiday Inn Port Moresby

In Port Moresby today it was a mad rush for the banks and everything else, as all of Papua New Guinea is gearing up for Christmas day and the four day long weekend. In order to avoid the long lines of people lining up to use ANZ ATM's at the ANZ branches around Port Moresby. I decided to go to the Holiday Inn to use the ANZ ATM machine there. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the ANZ ATM machine at Holiday Inn Port Moresby is a state of the art machine where you can process your transactions in a number of different languages. Not only does it do that it also allows you to withdraw cash in Australian Dollars as well as PNG Kina. Great work ANZ.

The tip here is Wantoks if all you need to do is withdraw money from an ATM, instead of lining up, try going to one of the major hotels around town e.g. Holiday Inn, etc and use the ATM's there.

XP given another life line

Great news for all those Windows XP loving wantoks out there. According to the BBC Microsoft has put in place a scheme that is going to allow hardware firms to obtain XP licenses until 30th May 2009. Microsoft has also extended XP's life previously until 2010 provided it is installed on netbooks and low-cost laptops. Originally XP was due to kick the bucket on the 30th January 2008. But I suspect due to consumers reacting poorly to the release of Vista, this is the reason why XP has being given a life line.

Software to hide data from prying eyes - HideMe

Recently my nephew came to me to seek some advice about how he could protect or hide his diary that he keeps on a shared computer with his sister. The solution I suggested to him was to use HideMe. HideMe is a freeware application that you can use to hide files in a picture. The data is hidden in the picture and can be extracted with 7Zip or any other Zip-Program like Winzip, etc. To the unsuspecting eye all it looks like is another picture, which in acutal fact it is not. Great little piece of software to hide sensitive data or if you just want to act like a sceret agent.

With the rate that laptops, etc are stolen in Papua New Guinea this may be an easy option to protect sensitive data in the event that you laptop is stolen.

Credit & Data Bureau company starts up

Credit & Data Bureau (CDB) is a new company that is being launched in Papua New Guinea to store information about Papua New Guinean's and anyone else that borrows money from financial institutions in Papua New Guinea that are customers of this company. The company has a number of different shareholders that include the three main commercial banks in Papua New Guinea (BSP, ANZ, & Westpac), they also have a number of foreign shareholders.

According to the CDB's website their principal business is the operation of a Credit Bureau database, where CBS's clients can access the credit history and identify details of their customers. CDB states that they supply their customers with information from their customers and also their public records.

So what this basically means is that CDB is going to host a online database that sits on a server overseas and is run by a foreign company in a foreign land. Now this company is going to be trusted to hold all the important data information and personal details of Papua New Guinean's. I don't like the idea of a foreign company in a foreign land being in charge of Papua New Guinean's personal data and information.

The other interesting point that came to light is that only a select few financial institutions in Papua New Guinea are shareholders. The rest have not being invited to become shareholders. Yet CDB's is expecting financial institutions that join to give their bad debts data over to CDB's for free. If I was a CEO, Lending Manager, etc for a financial institution in Papua New Guinea. I would not give this data over to CDB for free. The financial gain that CDB stands to make from this is huge. For example to become a client/member of CDB costs K20,000. Then you have licencing fee that you have to pay every year which is another couple of thousand kina. On top of that you have to pay a fee for every search that you make. Which depending on the volume of searches that you make starts at K8. So you can see already that CDB is going to be a cash cow. So why not sell you data to CDB instead of giving it to them for free.

Papua New Guinean's and foreigners who have bad debts a like should be very worried. Because the good thing about CDB is it is going to prevent these people from getting loans from a number of different financial institutions. But there also can be some problems like all systems where there is cases of mistaken identity and people who are good at paying their debts are put on the system as having a bad debt.

I think the concept behind CDB is great. It is working in Fiji where this companies sister company has being run for the last six years. But I feel that all financial institutions in Papua New Guinea should be allowed to become shareholders. At the moment CDB seems to be credit data beureau that it run by a number foreigners in Papua New Guinea. They do have a very respectable long time resident of Papua New Guinea as being their Managing Director (Retired Principal of Ela Murry International School). But it still does not change the fact that this is company that is going to hold Papua New Guinean's financial data and is owned and run by people from overseas. I for one would like to see more Papua New Guinea shareholders in such a Bureau or better yet the Papua New Guinea Government should create its own credit bureau.

Serious money to be made from cyber crime

According to Spencer Kelly from the Click on the BBC hacking is big business in Russia and other countries in the Eastern Europe. He stated that organised crime gangs are operating profitable scams that involve programmers writing malicious software and viruses. According to a Russian hacker you may create a great virus, but that doesn't make you a fortune on its own. But if someone could buy it for a couple of hundred dollars. Then convert the infected traffic into cash your earnings would soar. The hacker stated that hackers achieved this by manipulating browser homepages and changing search results to get users to click on their sites and sign up for services.

These days Hackers advertise and sell their products in chat rooms and web forums etc. A keylogger that records passwords as they are typed sells on average for about US$23 around about K60 (if the exchange rate is around about 0.39 like today's interest rate).

The scary thing is any person who has access to the web could purchase these tools, and with a bit of tech knowledge could create a major crime spree. This got me thinking are big banks like the Bank of South Pacific Ltd (BSP) doing enough to protect against cyber crime. For example should BSP have a duty of care to advise all of its customers that are getting the new BSP Visa Debt cards, how they can protect against cyber crime if they are using their BSP Visa Debt cards online. I certainly think so that banks like BSP have a duty of care. The use of Visa Debt cards with a major bank like BSP in Papua New Guinea is a new concept in PNG. So there should be some protection provided by the vendor to help the inexperienced online shoppers, by protection I mean an online shopping awareness campaign. For example for someone to put you into serious financial problems all they need off you is four basic pieces of information e.g. name, address, debit/credit card number, and the pin on the back of your credit card.

So this leads me to the next question that came to mind. Is cyber crime in Papua New Guinea going to increase now that a large number of Papua New Guinea's have access to debt cards that can be used online? I really think that it will, because at the moment Papua New Guinean's aren't tech savy enough to protect themselves against cyber crime. For example a well educated reporter friend of mine came to me a few weeks ago telling me how they had just won some lottery overseas and if I could check the email address for them before he was about to send of all of his personal details to these con artist that had sent him the email. So I guess what I am really trying to say is we need some good basic rules of thumb to follow, to prevent Papua New Guinean's from getting conned. Here are some tips to prevent a con:

• If it seems to good to be true it probably is.
• Don't give out your debt card/credit card details even if someone calls up and says they are from your bank
  
• Don't read unsolicated emails from people that you don't know
• Make sure if you are shopping online that the website is a secure website e.g. look in the browser window where the address is and check if it is "https" at the front
• If you use a debt card to shop online only have the amount that you need to do the purchase in the card or have low credit card limit
  
• If you get an email from some lottery company that you don't know and have never played it is a scam delete it straight away
• Don't email your personal details to people that you don't know

Wantoks we already have enough con artist in Papua New Guinea but once Cyber crime hits it is going to be sad day indeed. Part of the reason being is that currently not enough is being done to prevent against it, and PNG's police force are not equiped for it.

Google releases list of 10 fastest rising queries for 2008

With 2008 fast drawing to a close Google has released its Zeitgeist list, the tool which shows what internet users are searching for. The top 10 fastest rising global queries for 2008 are:

• Sarah Palin
• Beijing 2008
• Facebook login
• Tuenti
• Heath Ledger
• Obama
• Nasza Klasa
• Wer Kennt Wen
• Euro 2008
• Jonas Brothers

Unfortunately there was no country specific information on this Zeitgeist list about Papua New Guinea, may be next year?

Australian ISP's rebuff filtering plan

The Australian governments plans to filter internet use have being rebuffed by Australian ISP's (Internet Server Providers). According to the BBC Telstra, which is the largest ISP in Australia has stated that it will not be joining trials for filtering. Which this blog spoke about in an earlier post regarding the planned filtering of Australian internet traffic. The initial trails of the filtering technology was due to take place before christmas. But with major ISP like Telstra going against it, this may be just the spanner in the works that the general public has being hoping for.

On the opposite side of the fence Optus has stated that it is going to take part in the trial in early 2009, but they said that they would only apply the filters to block access to 1300 sites hosting illegal content. This brings up the question of who is going to deem the sites that Optus is blocking as illegal, and what type of guideliness are going to be used to determine what is illegal and offensive. By doing such a thing is just going to open up a whole grey area of what should be blocked and what should not be blocked. Again it raises the question of who is to determine what items are on the blacklist that the Rudd government is keeping secret from the general public.

Optus has also stated that it would not block access to the 10,000 sites that the Rudd government is demading. Nor will will Optus impose the second tier of filtering that blocks sites deemed to be unsuitable for childern. It seems what Optus is really saying here is that they are going to use this filter on their terms  to block what they fill needs to be blocked. On the other hand they are not going to block other items that they deem to be ok. So basically Optus is sitting on the fence and only taking the bits that Optus likes.

At the end of the day it is great to see that Telstra is taking a stance against the filtering of the Internet. Once the Internet starts to be filtered you lose your right to the freedom of information. This leads me to the question does Rudd what to filter the internet like how Internet filtering is done in China?

Promotion of artist by Frostwire P2P client

You hear a lot of bad publicity about P2P software like FrostWire, Limewire, etc, helping to increase piracy. FrostWire is now being used as a great tool to help promote undiscovered singers/bands. FrostWire is doing this through their new client welcome screen, which offers users the option to download tracks for undiscovered singers.bands. Currently FrostWire is offering tracks from Ray Styles for download via BitTorrent. FrostWire also allows the streaming of the version, which means that the music can be sampled without even using the torroent. May be even undiscovered Papua New Guinean singers/bands my be able to promote their music via FrostWire one day.

10 Most Pirated Movies of 2008

The 10 most Pirated Movies of 2008 according to Torrentfreak are:

1. The Dark Knight - 7,030,000 downloads
   
2. The Incredible Hulk - 5,840,000 downloads
   
3. The Bank Job - 5,410,000 downloads
   
4. You Don't Mess With The Zohan - 5,280,000 downloads
   
5. National Treasure: Book of Secrets - 5,280,000 downloads
   
6. Juno - 5,190,000 downloads
   
7. Tropic Thunder - 4,900,000 downloads
   
8. I Am Legend - 4,870,000 downloads
   
9. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - 4,400,000 downloads
   
10. Horton Hears a Who! - 4,360,000 downloads

It would be interesting to find out of the amount of Pirated Movies that were downloaded in Papua New Guinean.

Prosthetic arm fitted to bone

In a medical breakthrough according to the BBC Kira Mason a victim of the London bombings (7 July 2005) has had a prosthetic arm fitted to her bone and skin. According to the BBC surgeons were able to fuse a metal pin with her skin tissue and a battery pack that will help ensure that Kira is able to clench her fist and flex her muscles. It is said that getting muscle and skin to grow onto the metal is a revolutionary technique. Surgeons were inspired by the way deer antlers fused to skin which lead to the breakthrough. According to surgeon Steve Cannon

"The wonderful technology in Kira is the ability to put a piece of metal inside the body, then put it outside and stop it from becoming infected, and also allow the piece of metal to incorporate into the bone."

SnapAsk - information retrieval service

SnapAsk is a great service that helps you retrieve information from the web by using simple email commands.

All you have to do is send a blank email to Ask@SnapAsk.com with the request in the subject line of the email and you will have the required information with in a few minutes. You receive the required information. So all my Papua New Guinean wantoks out there that have a slow internet connection and are worried about the time it takes to research a particular topic. Do fear because now help is here with SnapAsk it does the research for you. Great for Papua New Guinean primary and high school students that need a bit of extra help researching an assignment. But because it makes it so easy, that it may take away some of the learning process of learning how to research.

You can use SnapAsk to read Wikipedia articles, get stock quotes, get the latest news from Yahoo, etc. Just by learning to use a few of the commands from SnapAsk. Great tool to help you with basic research.

According to the SnapAsk website:

SnapAsk is a way to get information using e-mail. It's simple:

1. Add Ask@SnapAsk.com to your cell phone or Blackberry's address book.
   
2. When you have a question, e-mail Ask@SnapAsk.com with a command in the subject line (body of the e-mail can be blank)
3. In less than 30 seconds, you'll receive an e-mail with the information!
   

Commands
Use the following commands by e-mailing Ask@SnapAsk.com with the request in the subject line.

What do you want to ask?	Example
flight status	flight continental 14
traffic	traffic los angeles, ca
weather	weather dallas, tx
dictionary	define scrupulous
local time	time moscow
stock quote	quote msft
latest news	news iraq war
Wikipedia entry	wiki cell phones (great for random trivia/bar bets!)
movie showtimes	showtimes bee movie seattle, wa
yellow pages	local dragon bar in san francisco, ca local pizza near van ness and clay, san francisco, ca
lyrics to find the name of a song	lyrics "how to save a life" "where did I go wrong"
slang term definitions	urbandictionary crunk
sports scores	ncaab (men's basketball) nba celtics

SnapAsk is great for those who have e-mail access on the go (via cell phone, Blackberry, Treo, Sidekick, etc.). No need to browse or search the web over a slow connection. Get information the way you're familiar with - through e-mail.

Skype 4 beta 3 release - Windows only

All the Wantoks out there who use Skype will be pleased to know that Skype has released Skype 4 beta 3. It looks lots and feels very much like Skype 4 beta 2. But it does included a few new features:

• Bandwidth manger - used to improve call quality
• Full history feature which allows you to serach and browse past conversations and calls
• Abuse reporting feature that allows you to report users you block to Skype
• Microsoft Outlook contacts support
• Call quality feedback area

Open++ add items to your right click menu

Open++ is free software that lets you add a new sub menu to your right click context menu. It has advanced options for adding almost any function that you want. Basically what Open++ does is provide a utility to add your own functions, when you right click. It also allows you to launch applications, files, folders, etc. Currently it is a Windows only product. A great tool for the Wantoks that want to speed up their ability to access key applications, files, and folders quickly.

The 10 most Pirate TV Shows on BitTorrent

According to TorrentFreak television "shows are by far the most wanted files on BitTorrent". Last week the 10 most Pirate TV Shows were:

1. Heroes
2. Prison Break
3. Dexter
4. House
5. Desperate Housewives
6. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
7. Fringe
8. Top Gear
9. Stargate Atlantis
10. The Simpsons

Currently with the limited amount of broadband users with in Papua New Guinea and the cost of having an internet connection is preventing large scale pirating of TV shows in PNG. But as the network infrastructure improves and bandwidth and internet cost go down. Piracy in Papua New Guinea is going to be a bigger problem then it already is. Major local music companies like CHM may be fighting an up hill battle when the internet technology in Papua New Guinea improves.

Use NORAD to Track Santa on Google Earth

In 1955 an American department store had an advert listing Santa Claus phone number. Which resulted in thousands of children calling the number to speak to Santa Claus. In fact the number had being miss printed and was the emergency number of NORAD (back then it was CONAD).

To cut a long story short the director of CONAD at the time asked his staff to to give children a speculated position of where Santa's sleigh was. As the years passed NORAD modernized its techniques to follow Santa using 47 radar installations and a number of different geostationary satellites to monitor Santa's progress around the world dropping off presents for christmas. This year marks the 50th year (1958 - 2008) that NORAD will be following Santa's progress around the world.

So this year if you want to track Santa Claus's progress around the world you or the children in your life can use the following website to track Santa noradsanta.org

E-Wave Chip to protect against Mobile Phone Radiation Threat

Are you worried about mobile phone radiation? Well Omega a Belgian health product company is concerned enough about what mobile phone radiation can do, like making popcorn pop to decreasing the sperm count in males. So the health company has invested in, and developed protective technology like the E-wave chip. Which is a computer chip that connects to a phone and is suppose to offset electromagnetic radiation. Which in turn reduces the heating effect that is created by electromagnetic signals.

Should Papua New Guinean's be worried about using such technology? At the moment there is no medical research to provide substance for or against Omega's claims regarding the E-wave chip offsetting electromagnetic radiation. But the next time you or a Wantok is using a mobile phone and feel it heating up or it heating a body part. Just to be on the safe side don't use your mobile phone until it cools down again.

Port Moresby Internation Airport to Small

On Monday afternoon when arriving back to Port Moresby from Brisbane on Virgin Pacific Blue. I was horrified to see the long line of people waiting to pass through immigration. Between 12:30pm and 1:30pm four flights from overseas destination arrived. To put it simply the international airports arrival lounge could not handle the amount of passengers that arrived. After waiting in a long line for almost an hour there was further delay because the one baggage conveyer belt in the terminal could not handle the amount of bags coming through. To be honest wantoks with the increase in the amount of international flights coming in and out of Papua New Guinea the International Terminal in Port Moresby needs to be made bigger.

The cheek of the Pirates in PNG

You don't have to be a brain surgeon to work out that movies that are just being released on the big screen in the United States and are already on DVD in Papua New Guinea are pirated copies. A friend of mine recently purchased a few DVD's from a DVD shop that use to be located at RH Hyper mart here in Port Moresby. The quality of the DVD's was fine for the amount of money that they spent on the DVD's. The problem they had with the DVD's was that the people who Pirate the DVD's put a crypted trailer etc on the end of the movie to prevent the owners of the DVDs from burning copies. The cheek of the people who pirate these DVD's in PNG. They steal these movies in the first place then modifiy it in such a way as to prevent the people that they sell these movies to, from making copies or transferring the movies that they purchased to iPod's, etc.

P2P freeware software - FrostWire

For those wantoks out there that use the peer to peer software Limewire I would suggest you take a look at Frostwire. Frostwire is a peer to peer file sharing software on the Guntella network and uses BitTorrent protocols as well. It is writtern in Java, and comes under the GNU licence and is a free software. It has all the features that Limewire Pro has and the best thing about it for people that use file sharing software is that it connects to BitTorrent. So basically don't pay for Limewire when you can get Frostwire for free and it connects up to BitTorrent.

The features that Frostwire offers are:

• Completely free & open source
• No spyware or adware
  
• itune intergration
• BittTorent Support
• Connects to more sources then Limewire & Limewire Pro
• Junk result filters
• Community Chat rooms
• Proxy support
• Firewall to Firewall transfers

The Frostwire GUI is looks the same as Limewire and opperates the same as Limewire. With a fee add bouns of having a section where you can connect up to BitTorrent. To be honest while trialing Frostwire over the last week to do this post, and you would not go back to using Limewire or Limewire Pro. So file sharing wantoks save a few kina and use a free and more superior product then Limewire. If you are going to do Peer to Peer file sharing use Frostwire.