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MySpace gets ready for makeover
Managing director of MySpace UK, Antony Lukom, said designers have been working on the project for more than a year."We wanted to make it easier and more intuitive to use," he said."I remember when early mobile phones came out and gradually became simpler and easier to use."Social networks are part of our lives now and we're going through the same process. Lots of users don't know how to cut and paste code so we want to make that easier." Fierce competition The move comes as MySpace is facing increased competition in the UK from direct rivals Facebook and Bebo as well as up-and-coming sites like Twitter.4.7 million users visited MySpace in April, down more than 30% on last year, according to data from Nielsen Online.Its rivals experienced a big increase in numbers over that period with Facebook now dominating the market with 10.2 million users. Facebook is also planning a major redesign of its site over the summer. Designers there are planning some widespread changes to the way core profile pages are organised, aimed at making the site "simpler, cleaner and more relevant". Cutting the clutter The MySpace redesign is the first complete overhaul of the site since it launched in January 2004. Sections from the home - or "splash" - page down will be stripped of some of its more complicated features. Those 15 navigation links at the top of the screen will be cut to five tabs. The US home page will be sponsored by one, as-yet unnamed advertiser.Anthony Lukom has no plans for the same kind of thing in the UK but does expect advertisers to support the changes.He said: "This is really about the user experience. But if the users are happy, advertisers are normally happy too."The site recently let users split their online friends into different categories for the first time.In the future users will be able to let certain groups of friends access different pieces of user generated content like videos and photos. Search is being simplified with results split into categories like people, music, video and the general web. Members should also find it easier to play around with the look of their profile pages. A new editor has launched this week with a point-and-click theme library offering colours, borders and images to choose from. MySpace claims users with more advanced skills will still be able to get their hands dirty with HTML code if they want to. Multimedia options The site's MySpaceTV video player is getting a facelift with support for high definition formats, an improved full-screen mode and simpler controls. Developers reckon it will be easier for members to embed video in their pages and share it with friends."We're now the second biggest video site globally after YouTube," said Anthony Lukom. "So we've just got a responsibility to update our player with the latest technology and that's what we are doing." Cluster bomb ban treaty approved More than 100 nations have reached an agreement on a treaty which would ban current designs of cluster bombs.
'Bomblets' Cluster bombs have been used in countries including Cambodia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon.They are made up of a big container which opens in mid-air, dropping hundreds of smaller individual sub-munitions, or "bomblets", across a wide area.Countries like the US, India, Pakistan and Israel claim such munitions are highly useful on the battlefield, but opponents say that where the bomblets fail to explode they leave a deadly legacy for civilians. During the conference, delegates have heard first-hand accounts from survivors of cluster bomb attacks. Speaking at Downing Street earlier, Mr Brown said: "I am delighted that the negotiations in Dublin have come to a successful conclusion and congratulate the Irish Government and all those involved."I am confident that this agreement is in line with British interests and values, and makes the world a safer place."The BBC's Paul Adams said he understood the agreement would outlaw the two types of cluster munitions currently held by UK forces, but would not prevent countries from developing future generations of weapons based on the concept of sub-munitions.And he said it appeared the UK hoped other countries not present in Dublin, notably the US, might be persuaded to accept the treaty later. Using British soil One stumbling block for the treaty could be the stockpile of cluster munitions the US military keeps at bases on British soil. The British representative in Dublin, John Duncan, said the UK would work with Washington to find a solution to the issue. But in a statement, the Pentagon stood firm, saying: "While the United States shares the humanitarian concerns of those in Dublin, cluster munitions have demonstrated military utility, and their elimination from US stockpiles would put the lives of our soldiers and those of our coalition partners at risk." Some campaigners do believe countries like the US will change, however. They cite the landmine treaty of 1997 that was never signed by the US, Israel, Russia or China, yet those nations have not used landmines since it came into effect. Simon Conway, from the Cluster Munitions Coalition, said there would now be "massive" pressure on the US."We think now that all of America's key allies have just renounced the weapon it will be very difficult for the US to engage in operations with countries who have banned this weapon and continue to use them," he said.Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Ed Davey said the prime minister must make clear whether he would continue to allow the US to store its own cluster munitions on British territory. "If he is serious about ending the scourge of these weapons, he must bring this abuse of the 'special relationship' to an end," Mr Davey said. Microsoft mulls fresh Yahoo deal Microsoft has said it is considering a deal with Yahoo which would not involve a full buyout of the company.
Yahoo had wanted Microsoft to increase its bid of $33 a share to $37. Spain arrests 'prolific' hackers Spanish police have arrested five hackers they describe as being among the most active on the internet.
Nigeria's repairmen n a dusty, oily alley in the heart of Wuse market in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, 25-year-old Joshua Ejike sits with the guts of a flat screen TV in his lap.
'Pop' Power-cuts are common in Nigeria, often followed by power-surges when generators are turned on. “Our light [electricity] is not stable and even surge protectors can’t handle it,” says Joshua. A “pop” sound from your TV or expensive new DVD player could mean you need the skills of a repairman.But most repairs are only temporary and it might not be long before the smell of burning diodes fills the room again. Boss Napoleon is the boss of these repairmen.He rents part of the shop behind them where reconditioned sound systems are sold. Each of his workers makes around 3,000 naira ($25) a day.“I have been in this business five years. I served under a master, now he set me free and I set up for myself,” he says.“Give me anything dead, I will rewind it.” Music "China” specialises in CD players.He brought out a dusty wreck he said he had just finished working on.It looked like it had just been dropped from the roof and kicked about.“Don’t mind the dust, I will clean it. It works.”He fired up the generator and music came out of the speakers. Mobile phones too A few yards away under the eaves of another storefront sits Philip Erigbara, a mobile phone mechanic.“We wrote off to the phone company and requested a diagram of the inside, then we taught ourselves to fix them,” he said. A simple problem may take only 1,000 naira ($8) to fix; a complex problem with the software, two or three times that. Imported parts Basel Emmanuel sells TV and DVD parts.He brings items like this DVD lens in bulk from Dubai where he travels every few months for his work. Each trip he buys parts worth around 4m naira ($33,000) and brings them back in his hand luggage. He is a little further up the earning scale from the repairmen and lives in a shared house with friends in a nice neighbourhood. No pay Festus Chidi is at the bottom of the pile. The 22-year-old sells reconditioned stereo systems bought second-hand in Japan where his boss has a friend.They are shipped by the container-load to Nigeria. This trade is called “tokunbo” which literally means “from outside”.“In a month I can sell half a million naira in stereos for my boss,” says Festus. But he is paid nothing: “just transport money and food,” he says. Europe develops Moon rover plan The European Space Agency (Esa) could send a robot rover to the Moon in order to carry out lunar science and test important technologies for the future.
Microbial test The MoonNext mission would consist of a 100kg payload lofted into space aboard a Soyuz rocket and then deployed to the lunar surface.The payload would comprise a robotic rover with a stationary geophysical package that would carry an instrument to measure seismic activity and gather geochemical data from the Moon.It would include a life sciences experiment that exposed bacteria to the lunar environment in order to measure the effects of cosmic radiation on the microbes."[The mission] is a good way to demonstrate that you can land properly."You will also land in a place that is illuminated so that power and thermal conditions are very good 90% of the time," Dr Foing told BBC News. Constant illumination Temperatures at the Moon's south pole hover around -40C, while the Moon's equator experiences wild extremes of temperature.In addition, the lander would be able to survive at the pole using solar power because scientists have identified two well illuminated ridges here where the Sun hardly ever sets.These lie just a few kilometres from the rim of Shackleton Crater, a 19km-wide, 2km-deep impact depression that has often been proposed as the landing site for a future manned lunar mission.Previous data indicated that water brought by cometary impacts on the Moon might lie permanently frozen on the floor of Shackleton Crater.This has raised the possibility such deposits, if they exist, could be mined by future lunar colonists.Water might be an expensive commodity to transport directly from Earth. Harpoon mechanism Dr Foing said that if MoonNext or another mission were to investigate whether these "ores" do lie frozen in Shackleton, it would have to rely on nuclear power, as the crater lies in shadow. But the Esa scientist speculated that deploying a harpoon to take samples from the crater floor might serve as an alternative.Dr Foing was speaking at the 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, where he presented new images of the lunar south pole taken by the Smart-1 spacecraft.Smart-1's Advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) has collected many hi-resolution images of the southern polar region.The images, obtained over a full year of changing seasons, were used to study the different levels of solar illumination on the Moon's surface. The 'big daddy' of space robots "I see this as the great-grandparent of futuristic robots like R2-D2 and C-3PO," enthuses Dan Rey, from the Canadian Space Agency.
"You can think of Dextre as an external handyman," Dr Rey tells BBC News. "Despite its tremendous size, Dextre is the very first space robot able to do delicate motions."It will take the 'vital organs' of the space station and when they are defective, change them out. So if it's a failed unit, it replaces it with a spare."Electronics boxes, computers, batteries - if they break down, Dextre will be called upon to go and replace them. If an external scientific payload needs moving, Dextre is the robot the station's astronauts will command to do it. The 1.5-tonne, aluminium-titanium structure has seven joints making up its shoulder, elbow and wrist. This gives it the freedom of movement to get into any position. On the ends of the arms are Dextre's hands, or Orbital Replacement Unit/Tool Changeout Mechanisms. Each hand consists of parallel retractable jaws, which are used to grip objects. Dextre also has a tool kit and is equipped with lights and video equipment. "Probably the most important thing in Dextre is what we call the force moment sensor," explains Richard Rembala from MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, the renowned Canadian robotics company that has led the development of Dextre. "The sensor is located at the wrist on each arm, and this sensor really gives Dextre a sense of touch. As it's grabbing boxes, it can actually measure how hard it's pushing, how hard it's twisting."This means it can limit the forces applied to structures so it doesn't break them."The ISS has a lot systems that use "plug and play" drawers for ease of maintenance; pull the old one out and push the new one in.These boxes slide on guide rails; and just as with the chest of drawers at home, it can be difficult sometimes to align everything up. So, ISS boxes need to be handled with care or they will jam.Dextre's sensors tell it how to make subtle adjustments to the orientation of boxes so they slide in smoothly. Dextre is the final part in a three-component system that the Canadians have built to service the exterior of the space station. The Canadarm2 was installed on the orbiting platform in 2001. It is essentially a larger, more capable arm than the one currently used in the space shuttle's payload bay. In 2002, it got a Mobile Base System - a trolley that can carry the Canadarm2 along rails running the length of the station. Dextre is the last addition. The two-armed robot will sit in a holding bay and will be picked up by its "head" by Canadarm2 and taken to wherever a job needs doing; the whole system running up and down the trolley track.The robot can do its jobs either on the end of Canadarm2, or be put down in a static position.Dextre will be operated remotely by astronauts from inside the space station. The intention is that Dextre takes over some of the duties previously done by humans on spacewalks, also known as extravehicular activity (EVA)."The astronauts will have a choice: do they want to do the task with the robot or do they want to do an EVA?" says Dan Rey."With Dextre, we're hoping that most of the maintenance work on the outside of the space station will actually be done remotely from the ground, allowing the astronauts to do more science in laboratories like Columbus." Virtual demos over net censorship Thousands of people are taking part in "virtual protests" against countries accused of censoring the internet.
'Internet enemies' The RSF demonstrations are running for 24 hours, until 1000 GMT on 13 March. Several hours after they opened, more than 5,000 virtual dissidents were protesting online. Users are invited to create an avatar, choose a message for a banner and take part in one of the demonstrations in Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, North Korea, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.This year, RSF has added Zimbabwe and Ethiopia to its list of "internet enemies".The other countries blacklisted by the group are Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam."From now on, we will organise activities every 12 March to condemn cyber-censorship throughout the world," RSF said in a statement."A response of this kind is needed to the growing tendency to crack down on bloggers and to close websites."One of the most targeted internet sites is the popular video-sharing website, YouTube, that has been blocked or banned in a number of countries including China, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Burma and Brazil.The reasons for banning the site vary from country to country, but include government objections to religious and political material, foreign sites and pornography. Final goodbye for early web icon A web browser that gave many people their first experience of the web is set to disappear.
Web window Netscape was created by Marc Andreessen who as a student had co-authored Mosaic, the first popular web browser. His company Netscape Communications Corporation released the first version in 1994.According to Shawn Hardin, President and CEO of Flock, Netscape played an important role in making the internet "a relevant mass market phenomenon"."Netscape had a critical role in taking all of these zeros and ones - this very academic and technical environment - and giving it a graphical user interface where an average person could come online and consume information," he told BBC News."During its halcyon days it really felt like the internet and Netscape were really the same thing," he said.Other companies capitalised on Netscape's success, notably Microsoft, which began to bundle IE with its Windows operating systems. Although this led to legal wrangles over anti-competitive behaviour, IE now dominates the browser landscape with an 80% market share. As a result, Netscape became unviable. "While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer," said Tom Drapeau on the Netscape blog last year, when the demise of the browser was first announced. Future return? For the past week Netscape users have been shown a message alerting them to the end of support for the browser."Given AOL's current business focus, support for Netscape browsers will be discontinued as of March 1st, 2008," the message reads. It then suggests users upgrade to either Flock or Firefox. Firefox is the main competitor to IE, particularly in Europe where it has a 28% market share, according to some statistics. The open source browser's development is coordinated by the Mozilla foundation, set up by Netscape staff made redundant in 2003. It has had more than 500 million downloads worldwide and in countries such as Finland it is the most popular browser."Competition is what brings quality," said Ms Baker.Flock describes itself as "the social web browser" and allows people to see feeds from community websites, such as Flickr and Facebook, and post to blogs without having to navigate to the page."There are lots of ways that people are engaging in having a conversation and Flock is very focused on making that as effortless and convenient as possible," said Mr Hardin.However, not all Netscape users are happy about having to change browser."I'm sad. Flock still needs improvement and I am not happy with Firefox's interface. I'm [an] orphan!" read one post on the Netscape blog.Others who posted comments on the blog predicted the browser will make a return."Netscape is a wonderful browser, and it will be so in the future," read one. Ericsson Unveils Smallest Radio Base Station The 2008 edition of the GSM Mobile World Congress begun yesterday in Barcelona , Spain, with Ericsson unveiling its new multi standard radio base station called RBS 6000, the smallest base station in the world.
Describing the base station as a new offering from the stable of Ericsson that will shape the direction of Information Communications Technology sector in the future, Back said Ericsson was committed to unveiling solutions that will ensure development of global mass market broadband, both in the fixed and mobile broadband. In his comments, Ulf Ewaldsson, Vice President and Head of Product Area Radio at Ericsson, said unveiling of the technology was timely, because operators face increasingly complex challenges in terms of operational costs, multiple radio technologies and sustainability concerns. The RBS 6000 series, he added, will truly make a difference, because it is a truly multi-standard system that gives operators what they need for the smooth evolution of their radio access. |
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