Displaying items by tag: Web 20

GUEST OPINION: The emergence of new technology is always an iterative process, especially when that technology has the capacity to change fundamentally the ways in which we interact, the services companies offer, and how we think about basic concepts like ownership.

GUEST OPINION: Web3 – sometimes referred to as Web 3.0 – briefly hit the public consciousness just before Christmas as some of the most influential individuals on the internet weighed in on the underlying principles and the extent to which the broader ambitions for Web3 can be realised.

Based on Etherpad, which was recently acquired and open sourced by Google, Sync.in enables real time editing of documents through an easy to use web based word processor. Multiple users can edit a document in real time and chat using in-built instant messaging. Sync.in desktop, built on Adobe AIR enables quick access and creation of documents.

Fuelled by regional government broadband initiatives, including Australia's NBN, Asia-Pacific fixed broadband subscribers are expected to grow 17.3 percent to reach 182 million users by the end of this year, with total industry billings for the region estimated to top US$44.9 billion which will be 13.3 percent more than billings in 2008.

Twitter is a popular web 2.0 site gaining huge traction in disproportion to its sheer simplicity. Twitter just asks, "What are you doing?" and nothing more. Despite this it has absolutely millions of page views with a global audience keeping in touch. Here are lessons that any business can take advantage of if they want their web apps to handle massive loads.

Pop quiz: you have a web site and you want it to be popular. It must scale to tens, hundreds of thousands, even millions of visitors. It has to be snappy and responsive. What server platform will you host it on? Here’s what two of the world’s most popular sites – Wikipedia and Digg - went with, and it wasn’t Windows.

2008 has been the year of the netbook. Since the surprise runaway success of the ASUS Eee Linux PC in 2007 there has been a surge of hardware vendors joining in. Yet MSI users have poo-pooed the use of Linux on these systems. I disagree. Here's why Linux netbooks are the future.

If you ever wanted to travel through space, visit galaxies, ponder supernovas, learn about dark matter, and get close to black holes, then now can experience these things right from your Windows desktop using the free WorldWide Telescope (released a few days ago by Microsoft Research).