Google launches Measurement Lab

This week Google announced the launching of Measurement Lab. The whole concept behind Measurement Lab is for users to be able to use online tools to discover a number of different things about their computer networks, ISP (Internet Service Provider) e.g. is your ISP blocking BitTorrent traffic, is your ISP piping certain traffic down slow pipes, etc. These tools will be a great way for Wantoks in Papua New Guinea to check what their ISP's are up to. Please note that the data collected from your bandwidth tests and traffic tests is saved for reasearch. I have tried doing some of the tests e.g. the ISP blocking BitTorrent test but at the time of writing this article the servers were to busy due to the high demand of people wanting to test.

The Measurement Lab website states that

"Measurement Lab was founded by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, Google Inc. and academic researchers. M-Lab was developed in 2008 after Vint Cerf and others at Google initiated conversations with network researchers to learn more about challenges to the effective study of broadband networks.

About Measurement Lab

Measurement Lab (M-Lab) is an open, distributed server platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools. The goal of M-Lab is to advance network research and empower the public with useful information about their broadband connections. By enhancing Internet transparency, M-Lab helps sustain a healthy, innovative Internet.

When an Internet application doesn't work as expected, how can you tell whether the problem is caused by your broadband connection, the application or something else? It can be very difficult for professional network administrators, let alone average Internet users, to answer this sort of question today.

Transparency has always been an essential component of the Internet's success, and Internet users deserve to be well-informed about the performance of their broadband connections. For that to happen, researchers need resources to develop new analytical tools.

That's where M-Lab comes in.

Tools for Users

Many researchers are already developing tools that allow users to test their broadband connections by briefly communicating with a server elsewhere on the Internet. The M-Lab platform supports the development of these measurement tools.

An Open Platform for Researchers

M-Lab assists scientific research by providing widely-distributed servers and ample connectivity for researchers' use. Each tool will be allocated dedicated resources on the M-Lab platform to facilitate accurate measurements. Server-side tools will be openly licensed and operated to allow third-parties to develop their own client-side measurement software.


Better, Open Data for Everyone

All data collected via M-Lab will be made available to the research community to allow researchers to build on a common pool of network measurement data.

M-Lab today and in the future

M-Lab is only at the beginning of its development. Today, three tools will be available, running on three servers at one location, and they will only be able to support a limited number of simultaneous users. A total of 36 servers will be deployed across 12 locations early in 2009.

In order to achieve its goals, M-Lab depends on the active support of additional companies, institutions and researchers, and we welcome input from anyone interested in helping the platform flourish. As more researchers, institutions and companies participate, M-Lab will able to support a wider variety of tools.

If you are an Internet user and want to run the tools, check out our Tools page.

If you are a company, institution or researcher interested in learning more about using and upporting M-Lab, learn more here.

M-Lab Partners

M-Lab was founded by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, Google Inc. and academic researchers."

Offline Gmail

Google has recently announced that Gmail is going offline. What does this mean Wantoks is that Google Labs is currently experimenting to close the gap between desktop and web-based applications. With Offline Gmail you are now able to access your Gmail from your browser any time even if you do not have an Internet connection turned on.

How Offline Gmail works is that it downloads all of your emails to your desktop. Then using Gmail offline mode is exactly like using it normally, with the exception that offline mode will make your browsing experience a hell of a lot faster. Due to the emails being stored locally.

The main downside I can see with Offline Gmail is having to download all the emails to your desktop. Depending on how many emails you send and receive it could be a couple of Gigabytes. For the majority of Wantoks that use dial up connections in Papua New Guinea it could be almost as painful as watching paint dry.

Behind the Scenes at Obama's Swearing In

According to the FBI's website as Barack Obama took the oath of office to become the 44th President of the United States, the men and women in the FBI Command and Tactical Operations Center paused briefly to witness the historic event on flat screens around the room for only a few seconds. Before it was back to the business of communicating with agents in the field and the FBI's partners at other command posts around the Washington to continue to monitor the event and to assess any possible threats. The behind the scenes was very high tech by the looks of things with control centers spread out around Washington to control the army of law enforcement officers, including FBI agents.

According to the FBI they started planning for the security 6 months before the actual day took place. The FBI website states that the Secret Service takes the lead for the inaugural security, but issues dealing with terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, etc are the FBI's responsibility.

Photos are from a FBI press release.










Click to view full story on the FBI website

Power problems at Datec in Port Moresby

It seems that Datec in Port Moresby is having serious power problems. Today (26th Jan 2009) the Datec complex was shut down again, due to a power blackout. From my understanding from talking to people from different companies that use Datec as a disaster recovery site, they are seriously thinking of taking their business else where. Due to Datec's on going power problems, this is also not the first time this month that Datec has had to shut their doors to both the show room and DR room due to on going power problems. This raises the question for the Wantoks that are running large companies that can afford to use Datec as a disaster recovery site, if Datec can't even manage their own power problems how safe is your data or machines that are stored in the Datec bunker?

I also found out from a Daltron sales executive that Daltron is going to be moving into the Disaster Recovery business in the second half of 2009, when they open their doors to customers for their own bunker. If Datec can not fix their on going power problems they may just lose some more of their business to Daltron. It is my understanding that a number of large supermarkets, banks, mines, government organizations, etc currently use Datec as their Disaster recovery site. But with on going power problems how long are they really willing to risk their Data at Datec? You would think that the simple solution for Datec would be to fix their gen set and their UPS's. Instead of locking customers out and losing business at the same time, while your competitors are hanging around like a bunch of vultures.

To Datec's defense there is not to much that they can do about the poor power supply from PNG Power. The sad thing about it is that we have all got so use to doing buiness or living our lives with this below par services. That when there is a black out what every time of the day it may be no one really makes a big fuss about it any more.

Where to get free IT Tech books online

For the Wantoks out there that want some free IT Tech books here are three sites that are worth having a look at:

• www.freecomputerbooks.com
• www.freetechbooks.com
• www.onlinecomputerbooks.com

Please note that some of the books can only be read online, while others can be downloaded in PDF format.

Not Always Right website

If you have a bit of time to kill and would like to read about some silly stuff that people do, have a read of
Not Always Right. I found it interesting to read about peoples experiences in working in retail, service, etc, jobs, and the silly customers things that they have to deal with. You hear stories all the time when working at an IT Help Desk like people ring up from another office and saying I can't start my computer, there is something wrong with it. Then you spend the next couple of minutes trying to trouble shoot a problem. Only to be told that half an hour before the computer shut down by itself there was beeping sounds and then a long beep and it shut down. There is a power black out and the UPS has run out. I guess you would have to really be in a service industry type of job to appreciate some of the things people ring up for, which basic common sense would let you know what the problem is. Like if you have no power and your UPS is not working your PC is not going to work.

Anyway according to the about section in Not Always Right the website was created because

"We believe that while customers deserve to be treated right, so do the employees and the other folks that serve them."

Wantoks if you have a few minutes to kill have a quick look, its not every ones cup of tea but some of you may like it.

Quotas of the week from the Sunday Chronicle

Published in the Sunday Chronicle on 25th January 2009

Opposition leader Sir Mekere Morauta commenting on a possible vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister:

"With its 21 members, the Opposition does not have the numbers to mount a successful vote of no confidence on the prime minister and his government. We need the support of other parties currently in government."

Morobe's provincial disaster man Roy Kamen commenting on the disappearance and rescue of nine people found adrift in the waters of Milne Bay:

"No one reported them missing. We did not know about it until authorities in Milne Bay called and told us about it"

American president Barack Obama on Innauguration Day watched by millions across the globe:

"... to all other peoples and governments watching today from the grandest capital to the smallest village where my father was born, know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity and that we are ready to lead once more."

Photos of how much a Mac has changed over the last 25 years

I was over at cnet today and saw these interesting photos of how much Apple Mac's have changed over the years

Computers Then

Computers Now


Laptops Then
Laptops Now

White House blog

President Obama is said to be the technology President, with his love for his Blackberry been public knowledge. He has and uses an iPod and he is also said to be hip and cool as well, due to him knowing the names of the bands and singers on the top of the music charts. But what will make him stand out from his predessors is the White House blog. Obama is said to be planning to use this blog to dismate information, in order to keep the general public updated. The blogs url is http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/

Pictures of Obama being sworn in as President

(pictures from BBC)

POMSoX Update 19th Jan 2009

Information published by BSP Capital via email:

Monday 19th JANUARY 2009

LOCAL STOCKS

Monday saw the local bourse finished relatively quiet with reasonable volumes crossing for BSP at an average price of K0.95 while CCP closed at K2.48; In London last night had NBPO finish at STG2.04 as LGL on the ASX jumped 18 cents to end at $2.86.

Today in the pre-open phase of the market has buyers for LGL and OSH at K4.10 and K7.97 respectively. While the offers for NBO are at a low of K12.00 on the local bourse.


PNG NEWS

KAM: Kina Asset Management reported on Monday that its Net Tangible Asset (NTA) per share as of 31st December 2008 is at K0.91.

MOVERS
Monday’s movers on the bourse 19/01/09:

BSP: -4.04%

CCP: -0.40%

LGL: 2.24%


Click on image to enlarge

Pope Benedict is going to be the next YouTube star!

CNET News has reported that the Vatican which has recently endorsed an iPhone prayer application and has announced that Pope Benedict XVI will now get his own YouTube channel. According to Associated Press, Vatican Radio and Vatican TV Center are working with Google on this latest project. To publish both texts and videos of the Pope's speeches as well as other news about the Pope, that will be published directly to the channel.

Great to see that the Catholic Church is now implementing technology to spread its word to the thousands of faithful followers around the world. It will also be a great tool for the local Catholic Wantoks to keep in touch with the Pope. I guess YouTube was going to be the next step for a tech savy Pope who owns a 2GB white iPod Nano, who famously signed a mobile text message at the 2008 Catholic youth day rally in Sydney with "BXVI".

95% of music downloaded online is illegal

The BBC says that the International Federation of the Phonograhic Industry (IFPI) states that 95% of all music downloaded online is illegal. According to the IFPI it is the biggest challenge because many artists and record companies miss out on payments because of the illegal downloading of music. Steady growth of online music sales has lead to a 25% increase since last year, which accounts for a fifth of all recorded music sales. But the falling CD sales has not being made up by the increase in online music sales.

IFPI stated that there were 1.4 billion single tracks legally downloaded in 2008. The online music industry is now estimated to be worht $US 3.7billion per year.

I did the calculations on it worked out that the music industry is missing out on an estimated $US 70.3 billion per year due to illegal downloads or about K207 billion per year worldwide.

POMSox update 15th Jan 2009

Email from BSP Capital:

LOCAL STOCKS

Thursday had the local shares finished unchanged, as CGA ended at K1.00 whilst the offers closed at K0.99. NBO finished at K9.42 while in London it saw trades at STG2.02 with a reasonable volume. IOC fell nearly 5 percent to US$19.80, but is expected to soar with more positive news from its Antelope-1 well.

On the exchange today has sellers lined up for OSH at K8.50 and CPL as low as K2.50.

PNG NEWS

CPL: City Pharmacy Limited announced yesterday of the appointment of Mr. Ravi Kant Singh as the new CEO.

IOL: InterOil yesterday reported that they have appointed MR. Wayne Andrews as the Vice President of Capital markets.

IOL: InterOil announced its initial logging results from the Anteleope-1 well that it has successfully logged 2,005 feet of the reservoir in the Antelope reef structure. This is to date, the largest vertical section of continuous reservoir of gas and gas liquids in PNG.

Quotas of the week from the Sunday Chronicle

Published in the Sunday Chronicle on 18th January 2009

Quotas of the week

NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Fred Yakasa speaking at the first quarterly parade for his command at the Boroko police station:

"Policing must not be just a job to make ends meet but a profession that requires personal motivation, a high level of enthusiasm, dedication and commitment...."

Superintendent Yakasa, inviting his charges to a reception at Bluff Inn outside the Port Moresby city, after the parade:

"Papua New Guinea will not collapse. We will just have two to three hours to get together and enjoy ourselves."

Housing Minister Andrew Kumbakor hitting back at criticism from National Housing Commission board chairman and former chief executives:

"Mr. Maru, Mr. Dambali, and Mr. Asukusa have done nothing for PNG."

Ron Seddon of Rotary Against Malaria when accepting a donation from tobacco company BAT this week:

"Our long term aim is for malaria without mortality"

How much is Yahoo's new CEO getting Paid?

According to Australian IT Yahoo's new CEO Carol Bartz will be paid an estimated $US19 million per year in addition to bonus and stock options. It works out that Ms Bartz is going to be paid over K55,000,000 per year or over K1million per week this year based on an exchange rate of 0.3454 US$ to the Kina.

Why is Telikom's ADSL Broadband taking so long to roll out?

Rumor has it that part of the reason why Telikom's ADSL Broadband is taking so long to roll out is because funding for the project has ceased and Telikom is desperately trying to seek extra funding from IPBC. On the other hand could it just be another case of what happened with B Mobile and Telikom has under estimated the demand of this service?

After talking to a few different people in key positions at Telikom in the last couple of days I came to the conclusion that it is a bit of both. One the ADSL Broadband Project has limited funds and two Telikom has under estimated the demand for ADSL. When Telikom does get its act together it is going to be great for Wantoks in Papua New Guinea to have high speed internet access that does not cost you an arm or a leg.

For the readers in out laying centers that may have being experiancing slow internet connections over the last couple of days e.g. Lae, Highlands, Wewak, etc. Part of the reason was do to the radio link to Mt Yule going down. So most of the data traffic had to be re routed making the packets travel a few more hops then they usual do, hence causing it to be a bit slower. I found out from Telikom that techs are currently at Mt Yule and are trying to fix the problem. Fingers crossed hopfully the problem will be resolved by tomorrow.

Virgin Pacific Blue forces Papua New Guineans to risk their lives

Total outrage and disgust is all I have to say about Virgin Pacific Blue. The Brisbane based Airline Carrier which is in partnership with Airlines PNG, running the Port Moresby to Brisbane route, today (14th Jan 2009) forced Papua New Guinean travelers and foreign nationals to to risk their lives, by going on a mercy flight to Fiji that is currently facing flooding and cyclones. People who purchased tickets from Virgin Pacific Blue or Airlines PNG were not advised of the change in flight plan and those who purchased non refundable fares were not given the option not to travel. The only option that Virgin Pacific Blue passengers who had brought non refundable tickets were given by Airlines PNG staff at Jackson's International Airport was to travel or lose your money. Many passengers faced with this dilemma took the risky option and decided to fly to Fiji.

It seems that Virgin Pacific Blue seems to think that the traveling public in Papua New Guinea is expendable. In order to save costs and get a good publicity stunt Virgin Pacific Blue has gone out and risked PNG lives. The idea behind the mercy flight was good, but the way that Virgin Pacific Blue has executed it was totally pig headed and disgusting. Virgin Pacific Blue did not take into consideration what the travelling public in PNG wants. For example if they were really trying to do a good deed why not leave the PNG passengers in Port Moresby and fly to Fiji, and then pick up the PNG passengers on the way back. Instead they were willing to risk the lives of Papua New Guineans to go on a mercy flight that is going to give them them good publicity which is subsidised by the PNG passengers. Shame on you big Australian business, for thinking that the travelling public in Papua New Guinea is expendable. I wounder what would have happened if the same thing took place in Australia. For one thing it would have being a public outcry and on the evening news of every major TV network in Australia. They also would have current affairs stories about it etc. But here in Papua New Guinea nothing is done about it. So big Australian companies continue to get away with things that they would not be caught for dead doing in their own country. Simply because we are a poor developing nation that can not afford to have the big government statutory bodies that other countries like Australia have.

The Civil Aviation in Papua New Guinea should also be questioned why it lets PNG lives put at risk for a publicity stunt by Sir Richard Branson's company. After all Richard Branson is already infamous for his long list of publicity stunts. This is just another reckless attempt at getting attention by the Virgin group of companies. But now they have gone to far by risking Papua New Guinean lives is not acceptable.

To the defense of Virgin Pacific Blue it turns out that after a lot of arguing with Airlines PNG's poorly trained enquirers counter staff at Jackson's airport. Passengers were able to get a refund, but the catch is they were not telling people. So is this just poor service by Airlines PNG International Terminal staff or a ploy to help their partner airline to avoid refunding customers? For the travelling public in PNG I am hoping that it is just poor service, because I would hate to think that Papua New Guinean and Australian lives are being risked to save a few kina. This just goes back to the question, what is the Civil Aviation industry in PNG doing?

This Wantok for one has decided not to purchase any more online tickets from Virgin Pacific Blue simply because they think that PNG lives are expandable.

The green impact of Google searches

Harvard University Physicist Alex Wissner-Gross says that performing two Google searches on a desktop PC uses up the same amount of energy as boiling a kettle for a cup of coffee states the Timesonline. With this bit of research in mind it is scary to think how much greenhouse damage I am doing as a regular Google search engine user. Here I am thinking that by staying at home and avoiding driving my car, etc, I am becoming more carbon neutral. Which in actual fact if this research is true I may be causing a hell of a lot of damage to the environment from being a geek sitting at home surfing the web.

According to the Timesonline a standard search on Google creates about 7 grams of CO2 and boiling a kettle generates about 15 grams of CO2. Which to sum it up means that the more you search on the Google the more you impact the environment. It would be interesting to know how many Google searches are done by Wantoks in Papua New Guinea? So that we could measure the environmental impact that technology is having on Papua New Guinea. By using technology like search engines.

I guess the environmental impact that technology is having on Papua New Guinea and will have on Papua New Guinea at this stage can not be projected. But with a Government that is not doing anything to take into consideration what the environmental impact is going to be from putting used computers, mobile phones, etc with their highly toxic batteries and other materials into rubbish dumps around PNG. With the potential for this toxic materials to leak into water tables etc. It is hard to project what the environmental impact is.

To the governments defence PNG does not have the money to start such projects to prevent computers etc becoming landfill. So the Fat Cats at Waigani need to start thinking of a business model that can be used to make it economically viable to recycle electronic wastes etc. I know that in Port Moresby now scrap metal is a booming business and people are cleaning up metal eye sores to make a few Kina. So if a similar business model could be used may be recycling electronic waste could become a viable business model in Papua New Guinea. Thus reducing the environmental impact that technology is having on Papua New Guinea.

PNG ranked 127 on ZDNet broadband speed test

At the time of writing this post Papua New Guinea is ranked 127 out of 172 countries for broadband speed. Last night I decided to take up ZDNet's offer to test my broadband speed at home. After getting my results I was pretty happy with getting a speed of 726kbps which was not to far off the top speed in Papua New Guinea of 777kbps, from people that have tested their broadband speeds. From Papua New Guinea currently only 28 tests have being attempted out of which, 3 of them are from me.


Click on image to enlarge

Most popular downloads this week

According to Download.com the 10 most popular downloads for the week ending the 4th January 2009 was

1. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - 1,744,635 downloads
2. LimeWire - 612,439 downloads
3. Avira AntiVir Personal - Free Antivirus - 565,069 downloads
4. Ad-Aware 2008 - 560,972 downloads
5. avast! Home Edition - 435,081 downloads
6. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware - 379,122 downloads
7. FrostWire - 373,011 downloads
8. Advanced SystemCare Free - 365,041 downloads
9. WinRAR - 284,142 downloads
10. Orbit Downloader - 271,890 downloads
    

POMSoX update 8th Jan 2009

Information Provided by BSP Capital:

The local bourse on Thursday experienced yet another relatively calm day with most of the stocks trading light volumes. BSP lost 1 percent maintaining its position within the range of K0.97-0.99, while CCP ended the day at K2.50. IOL continued its upward trend gaining 2 percent on the AMEX to US$17.40 with a reasonable volume.

In the opening phase of the market today bids for BSP are lined up at K0.98 and NBO buyers are as high as K9.50.

MOVERS:

Thursday’s movers on the bourse 08/01/09:

BSP: -1.01%

CCP: 0.40%


Note: Click on image to enlarge

Facebook has more than 150 Million Users

Facebook has announced that it now has over a 150 million users world wide. It is said that out of the 150 million users half of them use the site every day. It would be interesting to know just how many PNG Wantoks out there are on Facebook? I for one have chosen not to go on Facebook for security reasons. But a lot of my friends and few of my family members have caught the Facebook bug. They keep on telling me that it is a great way to keep in touch.

Windows 7 Beta offered as Free Download

Friday the 9th of January 2009 (United States time) marks the much anticipated release of Windows 7 Beta for free to the public as a download. Today Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made the announcement that Windows 7 Beta is going to be available as a legitimate download.

So Windows loving wantoks out there get ready to check out the new Windows operating system in Beta mode come Friday.

RISE-UP From Poverty - Micro Finance

A friend and reader of this blog sent me an email asking me if I could give this organisation a plug. After going over the RISE-UP From Poverty website I was more then happy to bring it to the attention of my readers. What this organisation is trying to do:

"RISE-UP From Poverty is a North American based non-profit organization that intends to partner with foundations and other non-profits, service clubs, global corporations, multilateral
organizations, educational institutions, social business institutions, and embassies to develop and enhance youth employment creation and social enterprise in developing countries. Through the development of social enterprise institutes, it will work to solve the core problems facing youth in each community. The first social enterprise institute
will be piloted in Guyana. Later focus will be on partner leader countries including Kenya, Papau New Guinea, Indonesia, El Salvador, Lebanon, and Somalia."

Professor Muhammad Yunus has publicly state that "I will support your efforts to build RISE-UP from Proverty - unconditionally. (Noble Peace Prize Winner in 2006).

I think what this organisation is trying to do is a very noble cause, and especially since it is trying to help the youth of Papua New Guinea, by using Micro Finance. Garima Tongia who is a Papua New Guinean micro finance expert with vast international exposure is a team member of this organisation. Garima currently works with the National Development Bank of PNG. He specializes in designing concepts on delivery methodologies and promoting Village Banking Concepts with the rural majority in the field of agricultural lending and financing for income generating activities. I believe with a Papua New Guinean on the Rise-Up From Poverty team it may be able to really help Papua New Guinean youths. Because there is someone on there pushing for PNG's interests.

There are alot of other international Micro Finance organisations out there but not that many try to help tackle the Poverty problem in Papua New Guinea. You always hear about Micro Finance non for profit organisation doing wonderfully jobs in other countries. But here in Papua New Guinea we are yet to reach the full potential of Micro Finance. There are emerging Micro Finance organisations in Papua New Guinea like the National Development Bank, Wau Micro Finance, etc. But their current exposure in Papua New Guinea is yet to make a major impact on PNG.

More funding is needed for the government owned National Development Bank to increase its Micro Finance reach. Instead of Papua New Guinea always waiting for handouts like some dog on the street. It is about time that we do more Micro Finance projects to impact Papua New Guinea in a positive manner. For example with youths earning a income there will be less tendency for them to want to hang around on the streets and create crime. Micro Finance in PNG is a step in the right direction so all Micro Finance projects should be encouraged, to help fight poverty. So wether it is the National Development Bank or RISE-UP from Poverty the government needs to increase funding to Micro Finance.

Poverty in Papua New Guinea is like a dieseas and Micro Finance in Papua New Guinea may just be the cure for it. Give loans to the people who the big banks like BSP, ANZ, & Westpac won't give loans to, just because they are too poverty stricken. What may seem like a small amount to the Fat Cats in Waigani is may just be a life saver for the wantoks on the streets.

Good Luck RISE-UP From Poverty I really do hope that you succeed in bring a positive change to PNG when you get here.

POMSoX update - 7th Jan 2009

For those readers out there that are interested in the Port Moresby Stock Exchange here is a update that BSP Capital gives daily:

LOCAL STOCKS

On Wednesday, saw the bourse finished quite active with reasonable volumes being traded for BSP and OSH. LGL lost 19 percent to end at K4.01 with offers closing at K5.00. Most of the global markets finished weaker last night, however, IOL and NBO concluded the day stronger at US$15.18 and GBX213.50 respectively.

The local market this morning has sellers offering to sell CGA shares at K1.00 while bids for OSH are as high as K8.00 and in the ASX OSH opened the day at A$4.59

MOVERS:

Wednesday’s movers on the local bourse 07/01/09:

BSP: 2.06%

CPL: 0.40%

LGL: -19.80%

NBO: 0.10%

OSH: -13.97%

Police in the UK can now hack home PCs

According to the Australian IT News website Police in the UK have being given the green light to hack into people's computers without a warrant. This move can only be described as a sinister extension of the surveillance state. Which I believe now the distinction between good and evil are now starting to merge. This type of hacking is known as "remote searching" and what it does is to allow British police or MI5 officers to remotely examine a hard drive secretly whether it is at someones home, in their office, in a hotel room, etc.

The material that can be gathered by using this remote searching are emails, web browsing habits and instant messaging e.g. Skype, MSN Messenger, etc.

As far as I am concerned no matter what they call it remote searching etc. This is still a form of black hat hacking and it does not give the British police or any other organisation for that matter the right to hack into someones computer with out a court order. It is still trespassing and entering a persons computer with out their permission and spying on a persons activities is still black hat hacking no matter what the British Government wants to call it. It is a downright disgrace because what the British Government is doing is the same as what everyday hackers do which is spy, steal, con, and gather information on unsuspecting victims.

One of the methods that the British police are going to use is key-logging software which is a program which records all of your keystrokes on a computer. So basically they are going to install Malware/Spyware on your computer. This is why I am saying that the line between good and evil is starting to merge.

Shame on you the British government. You have made what science fiction movies about surveillance states become a reality. Not only does Britain have the most number of Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) surveillance in the world. Now the British government is saying that it is ok to spy on normal everyday grassroots people by using other methods of technology. Just because some police geek who may be thousands of kilometers away thinks that you may be a criminal. Forget about the justice system. The the police have just become the judge and executioner as well.

It makes the British police no different from what our local boys in blue do in PNG where they are the police, judge, and executioner as well. For example the recent Tete settlement incident in Port Moresby (see Robert@PNG for full story). It is a scary state of affairs when big powerful governments like the British government think that it is ok to be a surveillance state. It now makes me wounder, now that the British government has taken the step to say that it is ok to spy on people in the UK! Will other governments around the world take its lead. I certainly hope not. But governments around the world have a habit of doing things that they think is a good thing at the time and not giving two hoots about the ramifications of what is going to take place down the track.

For example the GST tax in PNG was done just because at the time other countries around the world were doing it e.g. Australia, England, etc. The PNG Government at the time did not take into account how it was going to affect the everyday grassroot wantoks of PNG. All they could see was a revenue maker for the government. The result of the GST is, now not only do we get taxed for the few kina that we make. We also get taxed every time we go to the shop to buy something. It is OK for all the Fat Cat policy makers in PNG to come up with all these decisions but what they don't take into consideration is what the end result is going to be for the grassroot wantoks on the streets and villages in PNG. Another example which is the new minimum wage that was recently set. The government has a total disregard for what is going to happen to small business in PNG that can not afford to pay the new minimum wages. Let alone farms etc that are going to lay off workers simply because they can not afford the labour costs. Another example of the Fat Cats @ Waigani not thinking things through. They fail to take in to consider a simple economics theory of elasticity (where supply meets demand). Meaning at higher prices there is going to be less demand for a work force.

Air fares could go down this week, but what about ISP charges?

Both Domestic and International airfares could go down this week which is great news for the traveling public in Papua New Guinea. According to the NBC "Air Niugini, expects to reduce its international and domestic sector fuel surcharges" between the 5th and 10th of January 2009 but is currently awaiting International Parity Pricing. This is great news for all Wantoks out there that are planning to do some air travel in 2009, and with the current competition that Air Niugini is facing from Airlines PNG and Virgin Pacific Blue we could see a decent drop in air fares in 2009. This is also in line with the current global oil prices that may help make air travel affordable in 2009.

I for one am a great supporter of competition and as a consumer 2008 was good year for competition both in the airline industry (Air Niugini/Qantas Vs Airlines PNG/Virgin Pacific Blue) and telecommunications industry (Digicel Vs B Mobile). But what I am hoping for in 2009 is for ICCC to give the go a head for Telikom or one of its subsidiaries to become a Internet Service Provider(ISP). Then hopefully we will see some real progress in the reduction of the astronomical prices that Papua New Guineans are charged by local ISP's.

If you compare what people in Papua New Guinea are charge by ISPs to other countries in the region you feel totally ripped off. For example iPrimus Speedster 6GB plan (broadband wireless) for 6 Gigabytes of downloads per month was advertised in the December 2008 NetGuide issue for $39.95 per month. So for arguments sake lets say that the current PNG Kina to Aus Dollar is 0.5. That would mean that this plan would be K79.90 per month, with speed reduction after you go over your limit so there would be no extra charges. Now if you were to look at Daltron's entry level standard wireless plan 64k - 100. Meaning that you get a 64kb link and you are allowed to use 100 Megabytes before you are charged K0.50 for every excess Megabyte. For a monthly fee of K225, you don't have to be a maths professor to feel that you are being ripped off in a big way. To Daltron's defence I must admit that here in Papua New Guinea, currently we do not have a half decent communications infrastructure and Daltron buys their data wholesale from Telikom so they can not go any lower then what Telikom charge them.

With these arguments in mind I am thinking that it is time for competition to enter the ISP market place in PNG. To give all the grassroot Wantoks out there a fighting chance to be able to get affordable internet access. The PNG government should treat internet access as commoditiy that all Papua New Guinean's should have and not something for the privilege Wantoks out there. More funding is need to help reduce the cost of Internet access to help make it more accessible to the general public in Papua New Guinea.

Computer health check

Since it is the beginning of a new year why not start 2009 with a do it yourself service of your computer. Here is a list things that Wantok's with a Windows computer can do to service their computers:

Defragging your hard drive
I believe that it is important to defrag your hard drive every couple of months. So since it is the start of the year go through your hard drive and deleted files that you don't need or remove them to external storage like burning the files to a CD/DVD or putting them on an external hard drive. After doing this make sure that close all other programs. Then using the Windows defrag tool run a defragmentation of your hard drive. You can find the defrag tool in Accessories\System Tools\Disk Defragmenter. The reason why you defrag your hard drive is because over time your hard becomes disorganised with some files split into chucks and kept at different locations on the hard disk. Which means that when you try to access the file it takes you longer to access then if the file was stored in the same location on the disk. The whole defragmentation process takes a while so don't expect to be able to use your computer for a while when you start it.

Clean up your Cache
When ever a web page is loaded in your browser it will save ti to your hard drive. Which makes it faster to load the next time you visit that web page. But the Cache can become very large so you need to clean out your cache/temporary Internet files.

Run a Check Disk
I also suggest running a check disk to fix any corruptions that may have occur ed on your hard disk. To do this on a windows computer is quite simple. Click on your start menu and then click on run (to bring up the command prompt). Type in "cmd" and then click ok. Then a black command line screen will appear. Now type in the "chkdsk /f" and press enter. If a message comes up saying something like this volume is in use and chkdsk can not run.... would you like it to run on your next start up Y/N? type "y". What will happen is that the next time you start up your computer the check disk will run. So restart your computer and then a Windows message will appear saying that you schedule check disk to run if you don't want it to run press any key now. Leave it alone to run. I added in the "/f" option on these instructions so that it would fix any errors that are found during the check disk.

Run a Anti Virus Scan
It is also important to run a full system scan in safe mode to scan for any nasties that might have got into your computer over the last year, months, days, etc. There are a lot of great free anti virus software programs out there like AVG 8 - Free version which you can download and run for free. I recommend this free program I have being using it for the last 3 years and it has got rid of most of the nasties that I have encountered. There are a few that I have needed special removable tools for but that is a different story.

Run a Spyware Scan
Scan your computer for Spyware as well. Not only do these nasties collect information about you but they also take up valuable disk space and uses processing power. So you can run Windows Defender or another program like it that will remove Spyware from your computer.

Wantok's please note that I do not take any responsibility for any thing that you do to your computer.

Home Body Fat Test

In a desperate effort to help me keep my new years resolution of losing the spare tyre around my gut. I have sort technology to help me do this by figuring out how much I need to lose. I decided to do the online Home Body Fat Test . Which involves measure a few body parts and entering it into a questionnaire. It will then produce a result showing you what percentage of your body is fat, how many kilograms of your weight is fat, and it will provide you with links to go to web pages to help you eat healthier. After getting my results I found it to be motivation enough to help me keep my new years resolution going for another couple of days.

Basically Wantoks if you want to lose a few extra pounds or a spare tyre like me, by doing a home body fat test it may just give you the motivation that you need to kick start you. I know that it worked for me. But only time will tell to see if the motivation has helped me.

New Years resolution tracking tool - Joe's Goal

As per my first post of the year this year I have decided to change a few things in my life for the better. So I needed a tool to track my New Year resolutions progress over 2009. Surfing the net I came across a free online tool called Joe's Goal. This tool is very simple to use to track you goals for 2009, all that it involves is creating a online account which takes less then a minute to do on its homepage. Then on the interface that is made up of a seven days of the week with goals on one side and days on the top. You mark the day if you reached your goal for the day. For example if you goal was to exercise and you did it today, you would have green tick in the box. On the other hand you can also record your bad habits as well for example if your goal was not to eat cake for today and you did eat cake then you mark it and it will appear with a red cross. At the bottom of the grid it will provide a telly for the day. There are also basic reports that you can run, and you can keep logs of all of your activities as well.

So Wantoks if you want to try and achieve your New Years resolutions but need a bit of extra help to get there try giving Joe's Goal a go.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Wantoks. Every new year brings thousands of New Years resolutions of how people are going to change all the bad things about themselves come January 1st. I myself am one of those people. But this year I have decided to do things a bit differently. After reading a article in the New York Times it made me decide to do the changes bit by bit instead of trying to do everything in one day. I believe by using this approach I will be able to achieve some of my resolutions this year like lose that spare tyre around my waist and eat more healthy.

Happy new year to all my readers and wishing all of you a prosperous New Year and may you be successful in whatever you attempt to do in 2009.