Internet PrivacyWritten by Steve
Privacy on internet,Over past few years as internet has become more and more popular, privacy has become a major issue. Just as if you are walking down street and can be watched, every click of your mouse every website you browse, or file you download, is traceable. In recent years this has become a major issue. Spyware: The most currently talked about privacy issue at moment. Spyware are little programmes that can easily be picked up by surfing any website or downloading files. Spyware can pickup information from where you surf to your credit card details, this information then can be sold. Generally only "Dodgy" websites give you Spyware but people are now creating harmless looking websites with real content but only offering a download that may be Spyware. There are many developers trying to create software that will infiltrate Spyware and take it out, but just as smart these coders are so are Bad guys. Microsoft are waging war on Spyware by developing their own free downloadable Spyware remover, but already in beta stages, viruses have been made to stop Microsoft's Anti-Spyware programme in its tracks. This is lengths these malicious coders will go to, to keep their piece of pie. Cookies: Cookies sounds like something yummy, but on internet cookies can be opposite. Cookies are great tools as they allow websites to recognise you when you come back to view their pages. The major issue with this is some webmasters collect data on you from passwords to private and personal information. Cookies can even help nasty people to steal your identity.
| | The Premium Movie Channel Paradigm Could Soon Face ExtinctionWritten by Terry Mitchell
The article sent shockwaves throughout Wall Street, as stock prices for both TiVo and Netflix shot up. Last September, a Newsweek article reported that TiVo and Netflix might be getting together to produce a true form of video-on-demand (VOD). Last week, a Netflix official fueled this speculation by dropping hints about a potential joint venture. TiVo, original and premier provider of digital video recorders (DVRs) in U.S., would eventually provide instantaneous online access to entire DVD library (currently more than 35,000 films) of Netflix, nation’s number one mail order video rental service. This would be accomplished via a broadband internet connection to specially equipped TiVo DVRs. This development could also spell beginning of end for premium movie services like HBO, Showtime, and Starz. First, let’s put all of this into perspective with a little history of premium services. Home Box Office (HBO) was first premium service, debuting in 1975. It was one of first channels beamed from a satellite and carried by cable operators across country. As its popularity grew in late 1970’s, several other premium services like Showtime, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, as well as some lesser known premium services came into existence. The industry started consolidating in early 1980’s as HBO bought Cinemax, Showtime bought The Movie Channel, and those lesser known services went belly-up. In early 1990’s, Starz-Encore networks debuted to compete with HBO and Showtime networks. During mid-1990’s, as satellite services such as Directv and Dish Network debuted, premium services began offering “multiplexed” channels, i.e., multiple channels of HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, and Starz-Encore for price of one. Unfortunately, number of movie choices didn’t increase. Those services just began to air their same libraries of movies at different times on their various multiplexed channels. There are hundreds of movies at local video stores that have never played (and will never play) on premium channels while there are a comparatively small number of others that have played on these channels thousands of times. That has always been major weakness of premium services. Multiplexing did not fix this problem. Several market tests of VOD were conducted during 1980’s and early 1990’s but, because technology was rather primitive, it did not catch on with consumers. By late 1990’s, it finally seemed ready and lots of promises were made about brave new world of VOD. The cable companies were talking about veritable online video stores, which were going to put Blockbuster, et al, out of business. Unfortunately, reality of VOD has never lived up to its hype. The stuff cable companies are currently passing off as VOD is nothing more than a glorified version of pay-per-view or a DVR. For most part, their VOD offerings aren’t any different from stuff currently playing on premium channels and/or on pay-per-view. This is what I call “faux VOD.” How lame! Fortunately, led by apparent impending TiVo-Netflix undertaking, landscape is about to change and a new era of genuine VOD is about to be ushered in. PC-based broadband VOD services like Cinemanow (www.cinemanow.com) and Movielink (www.movielink.com) have been up and running for several years and are about to broaden their offerings. In addition, SBC Communications and EchoStar Communications have already announced that they are teaming up to provide an online-to-TV VOD service this year, while several similar phone company-satellite operator projects are still in negotiations stage. Also, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) platforms, offering hundreds of television channels via a broadband internet connection to a TV set-top box, will be coming online this year. One of major features of these services will be advanced VOD technology. Microsoft has developed its own version of IPTV technology. See Microsoft’s website (www.microsolft.com/tv) for details. The nation’s two largest phone companies, Verizon and SBC, plan to utilize Microsoft’s technology in rollout of their respective IPTV platforms later this year.
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