Cloud Storage Providers

SCloud computing is all the rage. "It's become the phrase du jour," says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers. The problem is that (as with Web 2.0) everyone seems to have a different definition.

As a metaphor for the Internet, "the cloud" is a familiar cliché, but when combined with "computing," the meaning gets bigger and fuzzier. Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically virtual servers available over the Internet. Others go very broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is "in the cloud," including conventional outsourcing.

Google drive is all the rage in today's hotly contested cloud-storage space. The offering, which was first announced on April 24, is widely believed to be the next big answer to services like Dropbox and Box and could very well become a popular option for those who already work with Google Apps or are looking to move their data away from their current storage service.

Even before its official launch, a lively Internet debate questions whether or not users should try out Google Drive. There are some who say that Google's data-ownership policies and track record of wanting to control data should make anyone think twice about using the service. Others say it might simply be better to help out a smaller company that developed a successful cloud storage service long before tech giants such as Google and Apple got into the business.

But at this point, there doesn't appear to be any compelling reason for folks to turn their back on Google Drive. Yes, there are some concerns and those might be warranted among some users, but for the average, mainstream customer, Google Drive seems like a fine option.

Read on to find out why the typical Web user should sign up for Google Drive when it goes live:

1. Privacy concerns are mostly paranoia

It's no secret that Google has come under fire over the last few years from privacy advocates who say the company wants to control users' personal data. But much of that is paranoia. Yes, Google has said that it wants to search and manage ever more data. But the huge concerns surrounding Google Drive and the privacy of content stored in the search company's cloud seem to be overblown.

2. Free storage is quite large

One of the nicest things about Google Drive is that it provides ample storage out of the box. According to Google, the service will support 5GB of free data, allowing customers to store their music library, video and a lot more content without having to pay the search firm anything.

3. Integration matters

When discussing cloud-based storage services, integration is a vastly important consideration. There's nothing worse than getting content into the cloud only to realize that transferring it from one service to another is nearly impossible. Google Drive includes integration not only with the search company's own applications, but with those from third parties as well. That's a key consideration before choosing a cloud-storage solution.

4. Near-universal functionality

According to Google, Drive will work on a host of platforms, including the PC, Mac and Android out of the box. Although iOS support will be coming at a later date, it's nice to know that the service is platform-agnostic. The more places data can be accessed and shared, the better.

Apple's "iCloud" is making lots of headlines this week, first with new details of renewable energy investment attached to the company's massive "iCloud" data center in North Carolina, followed a day later by news that Apple has bought land next door to Facebook's data center in Oregon for a second facility that is likely to be powered by dirty energy. The announcements have drawn a lot of attention because data centers use a huge amount of electricity to deliver our photos, videos, and music to our "iDevices."

While Apple has been more than happy to draw the media's attention to how large the solar farm is, it has kept its lips stapled firmly shut when it comes to just how much coal will still be required to power the cloud.

Let's take a closer look at the significance of the latest news from Apple:

How big is Apple's iCloud Data Center?

The physical size of Apple's new data center in Maiden, North Carolina is pretty hard to hide—about 2-3 times the size of a Super Walmart. Apple has managed, however to keep all the energy details under tight wraps. Based on its announced $1Billion (USD) investment in North Carolina, Greenpeace conservatively estimated last year in our report "How Dirty is Your Data?" that Apple's Maiden data center would demand 100 Megawatts (MW) of power if fully operational. Translate this into homes, this would be equivalent to the demand of 80,000 average U.S. Homes (or 250,000 EU homes). Some analysts have indicated that Apple may be putting far more than $1B into North Carolina, having spent over $700 million just on the building, which could mean an even larger energy appetite.

The best Browser

Internet Browsers: 

Heavy web users need an internet browser that is both fast and secure, and though all browsers enable internet access, not all are created equal. Different browsers can render webpages differently, and there can be a large disparity in performance between the top competitors. The three main things to consider when choosing an internet browser are simplicity, speed and security. Excelling in each of these areas, Google Chrome, Firefox andInternet Explorer are among the current best internet browsers. To learn more, check out our side-by-side comparisons and articles on internet browsers. The following is the in-depth criteria we used to evaluate the best internet browsers on the market.

Feature Set – A web browser should provide practical, convenient features that make surfing the web easy and fast. For instance, a browser should offer tabbed browsing, a customizable toolbar and an integrated search engine. For a more personalized web experience, the browser should also provide the ability to save bookmarks, set parental controls and create RSS feeds. Generally speaking, the more features an internet browser provides, the better.

Security – While online security measures have come a long way since the inception of the internet, the web is still rife with security risks, namely small-scale attacks to hack electronic data. Security features such as privacy settings, a pop-up blocker and antispyware enable safe internet surfing and help keep personal information such as passwords secure.

Speed & Compatibility – Web browsers should load quickly and be compatible with all major operating systems. We tested the speed of each browser in our lineup using the same Windows 7 system and a stopwatch, timing how quickly each one initially started up and was able to navigate between websites. A top internet browser will load and navigate between pages within just a few seconds.

Ease of Use – The best internet browsers are those that strike a seamless balance between features and ease of use. While features on a web browser are important, they become worthless if a browser’s interface hinders your ability to utilize them. Web browsers should boast an intuitive layout that fosters easy and convenient navigation.

Help & Support – Although some internet browsers are open source and therefore not supplemented with dedicated technical support, we still considered the quality of support options available. When it comes to internet browsers, available support can come in many forms, ranging from FAQs to tutorials, email support to a product manual.

While all internet browsers will provide access to the internet, selecting a fast and secure one will ensure safe and enjoyable online browsing. At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don't Have To.

 The best browser depends on a person, people have different preferences.

watch the video and submit 10 pls, thank you

http://cci.launchpad6.com/video58

Shuttle Discovery retires with Washington flypast

1What would it be like to fly a space shuttle? Although the last of NASA's space shuttles has now been retired, it is still fun to contemplate sitting at the controls of one of the humanity's most sophisticated mashines. Pictured above is the flight deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour, the youngest shuttle and the second to last ever launched. The numerous panels and displays allowed the computer-controlled orbiter to enter the top of Earth's atmosphere at greater than the speed of sound and -- just thirty minutes later -- landon a runway like an airplane. The retired space shuttle are now being sent to museums, with Endeavour being sent to California Space Center in Los Angeles, California, Atlantis to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Merritt Island, Florida, and Discovery to the Udvar-Hazy Annex of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. Therefore sitting in a shuttle pilot's chair and personally contemplating the thrill of human space flight may actually be in your future.


3Have you always wanted to see where the Astronauts work? Now’s your chance. No, it’s not outer space, but it is NASA’s Johnson Space Center! Go behind the scenes on the NASA Tram Tour and you will have the opportunity to get an up close look at real NASA facilities! Home of the Astronauts and Mission Control, NASA’s Johnson Space Center is sure to show you an out of this world experience. 

NASA administrator Charles Bolden announced today the four museums — the Smithsonian Institution (Discovery), the California Science Center (Endeavour), Kennedy Space Center (Atlantis) and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (Enterprise) — that will receive space shuttles for public display after the fleet retires this summer.

As expected Houston, the home of human spaceflight, was snubbed.

It’s a shame. Houston’s campaign, Bring the Shuttle Home, probably deserves some blame for being late to the game in terms of politicking for an orbiter.

But I’m not sure any campaign could have saved Houston. The politics of this decision were pretty clear. President Obama appoints the NASA administrator, and Texas is a decidedly Republican state.

“It is sad and unfortunate that politics played such an obvious role in the placement of theses retiring Orbiters,” said Texas Congressman John Culberson. “The thought of an Orbiter not coming home to rest at Space Center Houston is truly tragic. It is analogous to Detroit without a Model-T, or Florence without a da Vinci.”

Under the present leadership in the White House and Congress Texas has clearly lost some of its juice, noted Robert Stein, a political scientist at Rice University: “l don’t think we’re that powerful in Texas anymore. We don’t have the clout we once did.”

Texas used to do well even under politically divided government in Washington with representatives like Sens. John Tower and Lloyd Bentsen working together. “Right now that’s not happening. Many Republicans in the Texas delegation are ideologues and they can’t see anyway to make a deal. That hurts the state when it comes to decisions like this.”

Hope you caught Endeavour flying into Houston in 2008, as it probably won’t happen again.

NASA denied politics were involved in the decision.

“I have felt no political pressure at all during this process. I’m apolitical. I’m here to do what is best for NASA,” said Olga Dominguez, Assistant Administrator, Office of Strategic Infrastructure, who forwarded the recommended sites chosen to Charles Bolden.

The selection process was poorly conceived in the sense that NASA never clearly stated the criteria by which the orbiters would be parsed out. From some perspectives it seems ludicrous that Houston will not get one of the retiring birds.

Apple great company or money maker

In Apple’s latest earnings announcement, Apple said that its cash holdings had swelled to more than $97-billion (U.S.), thanks to a combination of big iPad and iPhone sales and not a lot of spending by the company. For the record, Apple sold over $37 Million iPhone’s and over $80 M devices in Q4 2011. Apple stock surpassed $525 a share recently, bringing the Cupertino, California based company’s market cap to 492.10B (NasdaqGS)! That means that Apple now has more money than does the US Government (Berman). The company has groundbreaking products ready to be launched including the iPad 3 and the 6th generation iPhone alongside with newly designed MacBook Pro computers (Goodwin). This will, no doubt increase Apple’s treasure, making the company the king of the industry, by a far margin. In order to give people a clearer picture of Apple’s value; Apple is worth more than all 32 Eurozone banks, the entire economy of Singapore, and 45 days of global oil consumption. Hard to believe, I know, but it is true that Apple is worth more than all of the illegal drugs in the world (Horowitz)! These data were collected in September of 2011, when Apple was estimated to be worth $110 Billion less than their estimated value to date (Horowitz).

Apple has a clear path in front of them. The new CEO, Tim Cook, proved himself off to a good start (Jobs). The question in people’s minds is if Apple will he be able to keep it up? In my opinion, Tim Cook certainly has the motivation for the job after receiving $378M of Apple stock as a promotion (Ciaccia). All he needs is time to become the Apple’s right hand man.

By, Emir Ozmen
http://uaabeats.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/apple-the-money-maker/

Turning Students into Good Digital Citizens

I just came across this excellent article published by The Journal, which explores a number of issues regarding students’ development of digital literacies and the need for curriculum reform that embeds more explicit teaching of digital citizenship. The article also provides some great leads to recent research in this area including the work of Michael Wesch. 

“The newer, more interesting questions that are, I think, unique to the digital world revolve around things like algorithms… When my students are freshmen, I try to get them familiar with the digital space in a new way, to begin to give them a sense that what they’re seeing on the screen is encoded. By the time they’re seniors, my hope is that they not only see those structures, but start to manipulate them and put things together in new ways.”

“Understanding that what a person sees on a screen is a construct created by somebody–perhaps even oneself–is part of “building a scaffold toward digital citizenship,” Wesch says, and the next step beyond critical thinking, information literacy, and creative thinking.

“Our lives are so entwined with the digital–so incredibly enmeshed in the digital,” he concludes, “that, if you’re going to be a good citizen, period, you have to be a good digital citizen.”