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Friday, September 1, 2006

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, yesterday unveiled Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network (KAREN). It is super high speed Internet that is capable of transmitting data with speeds of up to ten gigabits per second, 10,000 times faster than the current speed of broadband (1Mbps), and 200,000 times faster than dial-up.

The New Zealand Government put NZ$43 million ($28.1 million USD) into the Crown company: Research and Education Advanced Network of New Zealand (REANNZ) organization, responsible for the running of KAREN.

KAREN will link universities and research institutions in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hawkes Bay, Nelson and Rotorua and then to the rest of the world via a TelstraClear fibre optic cable.

The network will allow geologists/geophysicists to access U.S. data on fault lines, 3D modellers the ability to collaborate on international mapping projects and students will be able to participate in interactive video lectures with experts, anywhere in the world.

The technology so far is limited to just universities and research institutions but Minister for Education Steve Maharey said: “The network will be extended over time to include other institutions, including schools, libraries and museums.” It is also limited to just one university in the South Island, it is located in the HIT Lab NZ at the University of Canterbury.

Clark said: “The link is crucial in order to attract and retain scientists, because it allows a greater level of real time collaboration between scientists based in New Zealand, and their colleagues around the world.”

The Telecommunications’ Users Association of New Zealand chief executive, Ernie Newman, said: “Karen was a ‘great initiative’ for the science community, and that would have wider benefits for the country.”

Dr. Mark Billinhurst, HIT Lab director, said: “The network meant the country was now legitimately part of the international research community.”

Thursday, August 14, 2014

On Tuesday many internet routers, used to find the pathways to different parts of the web, reached their memory limit of 512,000 entries in the tables they use to store the routes, causing problems for many users.

A router is used to direct a user towards the area of the internet where they will find the content they are looking for, e.g. a web page. The recent problem was caused by the arbitrary memory limit built into the design of many aging routers. A limit was needed to prevent the cost of hardware from becoming prohibitively expensive in the days when physical data storage was still comparatively expensive. This small amount of memory in turn limits the number of directions which can be stored on a single router leading to different parts of the internet. When this limit was reached, it caused outages of services among Internet Service Providers. Many routers, including older ones provided by Cisco Systems Inc., are limited to storing a total of 512,000 routes or paths.

This limit was reached on Tuesday, reported to have been triggered by Verizon publishing another 15,000 paths. Those affected included eBay, LastPass, and clients of the web hosting company Liquid Web, who lost much of their services until Verizon withdrew some of these new paths. Problems nevertheless continued throughout the day, even after the withdrawal.

A longer term fix is possible, but it would require manually replacing old routers with newer, more capable ones. It is hard to tell what issues would temporarily cascade though the internet by taking down routers from part of the internet for maintenance. Many experts have warned that problems could continue until these difficult fixes have been implemented, although the recent switch to a newer form of IP Addresses, IPv6, will temporarily help the issue. Wired News reported that Andre Toonk, a network engineer, had stated that the number of network outages on the internet, typically around 1,500, yesterday peaked at 2,587, enough to become clearly noticeable.

Friday, December 30, 2005

The Australian Centre for Languages, a company which has a multi-million dollar contract with the Australian government to provide refugee services, has been accused of breaching its duty of care following the death of a chronically ill child and allegations of failing to provide three women in their care with food.

Friday, March 5, 2010

An armed man opened fire at an entrance to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on Thursday at 6.40 p.m (0140 UTC), injuring two police officers, before being shot and killed by them. According to the officers, the man calmly approached an entrance to the building near the Metro station, pulled a gun from his coat pocket and opened fire at them. No one else was injured in the incident. The attacker has been identified as 36 year old John Patrick Bedell of Hollister, California. He was armed with two nine millimeter semiautomatic weapons and several magazines of ammunition and acted alone.

Chief of the United States Pentagon Police Richard S. Keevill conducted a press conference two hours after the incident. He said that the wounds to the two officers were not life threatening as the bullets just grazed them. The suspect was critically injured as he was not wearing a bullet-proof vest. The two officers were taken to George Washington University Hospital for treatment and were released few hours later. He praised Officers Jeffrey Amos and Marvin Carraway for acting “quickly and decisively to neutralize him as a threat” without hurting anyone else. Bedell died hours after being admitted in critical condition.

Keevill added, “About 6:40 tonight, a person came [to] the Pentagon … area … [and] appeared to be pretty calm. As the officers started to ask him for his pass … he drew a weapon from his pocket and started shooting. … He did not say anything.” Keevill confirmed that the shooter was a American citizen but denied knowledge of any motive behind the shooting. He said, “We have a theory, but it’s still a theory. It’s going to take time to develop that.”

Bedell’s car was driven from California and more ammunition was found there. Keevill said there is a surveillance video showing the suspect that “pretty much confirms what we’ve been saying, that he acted alone.” He has dismissed the possibility of Bedell being a terrorist.

An Internet posting has come forward where a user named JPatrickBedell argued that the 9/11 attacks and death (ruled a suicide by court of law) of Marine Col. James Sabow in Orange County in 1991 had been “cover-ups” and that he was determined to uncover the truth. In the same posting he protests strict US marijuana laws and has included links to a 2006 court case in Orange County where he was prosecuted for cultivating marijuana and resisting a police officer. Online Court records show the date of birth mentioned by the user JPatrickBedell matches that of the John Patrick Bedell.Bedell said in an online video, “The moral values of individuals and communities are increasingly attacked by a political system where deceit is routine and accepted and the only standard is power.”

Pentagon entrances were locked shortly after the shooting, during the evening rush hour but all were reopened with the exception of the Pentagon Metro entrance which is adjacent to the main entrance of the Pentagon in Virginia, across the Potomac River. Transit officials decided to close the busy Pentagon subway station for Friday as a part of the investigations.The Pentagon police department, the Arlington County Police Department, U.S. Secret Service and the FBI are investigating the incident.

The Pentagon has total five entrances: Mall Terrace Entrance façade, the River Terrace Entrance façade, the Concourse Entrance (or Metro Station) façade, the South Parking Entrance façade, and the Heliport façade.

Monday, June 26, 2006

A Francesco Totti penalty deep in added time put Italy through to the next round of the 2006 Fifa World Cup at the expense of Australia, Monday.

The Australian Socceroos had the ball more, but the more experienced Azzuri defenders created an impenetrable defence, limiting the number of Australian scoring opportunities. This was despite the Italian team shrinking to ten men after Marco Materazzi was shown a controversial straight red card in the 50th minute.

Australia looked to have gained an advantage when Marco Bresciano surged through the Italy defence and Materazzi slid in to trip him up. Though there was an Italy defender on Bresciano’s shoulder, Spanish referee Luis Medina Cantalejo deemed that the tackle was deliberately not aimed at the ball, and considered the foul worth more than a single yellow card. It would not be the only disputed decision in the match.

Both sides had a number of good opportunities to score, but the shots were generally too close to the box to beat the goalkeepers. The best save of the game was made by Mark Schwarzer from a Luca Toni effort 20 minutes into the game.

Guus Hiddink delayed making attacking substitutions against ten-men Italy likely because he expected the game to go to extra time, and so wished to keep a fitness advantage later on in the game. Hiddink’s only substitution, John Aloisi, came on at the 80th minute, while the Italian coach Marcello Lippi had made three, including the crucial one of Totti five minutes earlier.

In the attack Totti was a straight swap for Alessandro Del Piero, a fresh pair of legs which ensured Italy were a threat on the break right until the end of the regular period of play. It was a tactic that paid dividends in the end.

The second disputed referee decision was a penalty kick was awarded to Fabio Grosso three minutes into added time (and the last minute of game time). Grosso was running towards goal from out wide having avoided Marco Bresciano before being obstructed by Lucas Neill. The central defender had fallen to the ground early and Grosso, though not tripped, was impeded and dived straight over him. Medina awarded a penalty shot as this occurred within the penalty area.

Totti, dropped from the game in favour of Del Piero, grinned slightly as he placed the ball on the spot. The ball was struck close to the upper-right corner of Schwarzer’s box, the goalie could do nothing to stop the ball. It was the last kick of the game and the Italians celebrated.

The Budweiser Man of the Match was Gianluigi Buffon of Italy.

The prize was a quarter-final match against the lowest ranked FIFA team in their half of the knock-out tree, Ukraine.

Saturday, November 4, 2006

On November 13, Torontonians will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Don Valley East (Ward 33). One candidates responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Zane Caplan, Shelley Carroll (incumbent), Jim Conlon, Sarah Tsang-Fahey, and Anderson Tung.

For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.

Friday, January 12, 2007

The iPhone only made its appearance as a prototype and there have been controversies aroused.

The dispute has come up between the manufacturer of the iPhone (which was resented on Wednesday for the first time) – Apple Inc. – and a leader in network and communication systems, based in San Jose – Cisco. The company claims to possess the trademark for iPhone, and moreover, that it sells devices under the same brand through one of its divisions.

This became the reason for Cisco to file a lawsuit against Apple Inc. so that the latter would stop selling the device.

Cisco states that it has received the trademark in 2000, when the company overtook Infogear Technology Corp., which took place in 1996.

The Vice President and general counsel of the company, Mark Chandler, explained that there was no doubt about the excitement of the new device from Apple, but they should not use a trademark, which belongs to Cisco.

The iPhone developed by Cisco is a device which allows users to make phone calls over the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Yesterday, in the Last 16 round of the UEFA Champions League 2015–2016, Spanish football club FC Barcelona defeated London-based club Arsenal F.C. 2–0 — Lionel Messi scoring both of those at the Emirates Stadium. Munich-based club Bayern Munich were held to a 2–2 draw against Italian club Juventus FC in the Juventus Stadium.

At London, Barcelona had a greater ball possession against The Gunners. The match saw two yellow cards. Unbeaten in their last 32 games, Barça were not able to net goals for more than an hour. Arsène Wenger’s team Arsenal held the defending champions, and it took 49 minutes for the Catalonians to have one shot on target. In the 71^st minute, Barcelona won the ball and began counter-attacking, where Messi–Suárez–Neymar, the MSN trio, broke the deadlock as the Argentine Messi scored his first goal against Czech goalkeeper Petr ?ech.

In the 83^rd minute, Mathieu Flamini who was just subbed in brought the Argentine down in the penalty area and the visitors won a penalty. Messi scored his second of the night leaving the English side facing an uphill battle. Arsenal have been eliminated in the Last 16 round five consecutive times. After the match, Wenger told BT Sport “Barcelona is a great team[…] We put a lot of energy in the game and technically we were very average.”

Barcelona in their last 33 unbeaten games have netted 100 goals. Arsenal are to play the second leg at Camp Nou on March 16.

In the other fixture of the night, between Bayern Munich and Juventus, the Germans had better ball possession. Thomas Müller and Arjen Robben put the visitors 2–0 up, netting in the 43^rd and the 55^th minute respectively. But after the hour mark, Paulo Dybala and Stefano Sturaro brought Juventus level by scoring in the 63^rdand the 76^th minutes, and the first leg finished in a 2–2 draw. The match saw four bookings, three for the visitors.

Juventus continued their unbeaten streak of now seventeen home matches in European competition since defeat in 2013 against Bayern Munich.