Google Now Serves 25% of North American Internet Traffic

sturgeon writes “Wired Magazine claims today that Google is now 25% of the North American traffic with a mostly unreported (and rapidly expanding), massive deployment of edge caching servers in almost every Internet provider around the world. Whether users are directly using a Google service (i.e. search, YouTube) or the devices are automatically sending data (e.g. Google Analytics, updates), the majority of end devices around the world will now send traffic to Google server during the course of an average day. It looks like Wired based their story on a report from cloud analytics and network management company DeepField.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google Now Serves 25% of North American Internet Traffic

Network Solutions Hit With DDoS

New submitter Landy DeField was the first of many of write in about Network Solutions’ website and DNS outage: “If your website does not load this morning you need to ask yourself do we use Network Solutions? Because all of their servers are all currently down. You can confirm this by visiting http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/networksolutions.com.html.” The only solid information from Network Solutions is a post on their Facebook page: “Network Solutions is experiencing a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack that is impacting our customers as well as the Network Solutions site. Our technology team is working to mitigate the situation. Please check back for updates.” There have been several reports that the outage is causing hosted DNS to fail, leading to a number of unresolvable websites. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Network Solutions Hit With DDoS

Tiny Ion Engine Runs On Water

symbolset writes “Discovery News is covering a project by two engineers from the University of Michigan to pair cubesats with tiny ion engines for inexpensive interplanetary exploration. The tiny plasma drive called the CubeSat Ambipolar Thruster (CAT) will ionize water and use it as propellant with power provided by solar cells. In addition to scaling down the size of ion engines they hope to bring down the whole cost of development and launch to under $200, 000.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Tiny Ion Engine Runs On Water

In a Security Test, 3-D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

GenieGenieGenie writes “After all the talk of printed guns and the problems they pose to traditional methods of perimeter security, we get a live demo courtesy of some rather brave journalists from Israel’s Channel 10, who took the plastic weapon known as the Liberator past security into the Israeli parliament, and held it within meters of the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I say brave because had they been caught pulling this stunt, which involved taking their toy out of the bag while sitting in the audience of a speech by the prime minister, they would have faced some real steel. Haaretz has the video (sorry, Hebrew only at the moment) [Google-translated version of the article — Ed.] where you can follow the breach (from ~6:30) and see them pass the metal detector and the moment when the gun comes out. The movie also shows some testing of the gun in a police-supervised weapons range. Parliament security officials said that ‘this is a new phenomenon and they are checking the subject to give it a professional solution as quickly as possible.’ I hope this doesn’t mean we will now officially face an era of ever more intruding security checks at entrances to events like this.” Would-be Liberator printers, take note: the testing shows the barrel violently separating from the rest of the gun. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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In a Security Test, 3-D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

Microsoft To Shut Down TechNet Subscription Service

otaku244 writes “Since 1998, Microsoft TechNet has been a the mainstay for all system developers attached to the Microsoft Platform given the ease of access to almost every product the company has produced. Unfortunately, the days of a cheap, unlimited Microsoft development stack are coming to an end.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft To Shut Down TechNet Subscription Service

‘Biowire’ could be major step toward viable cardiac patches

Tech out of Toronto allows researchers to make mature tissue from human cardiac cell samples for the first time, which could eventually lead to biodegradable surgical patches that remain in the body. [Read more]        

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‘Biowire’ could be major step toward viable cardiac patches

Hands-on with the Windows “Blue” desktop experience

The Beta fish is back in the new Windows “Blue” previews. This week, Microsoft is unveiling the previews for its Windows “Blue” operating systems—the Windows 8.1 client, Windows Server 2012 R2, and an update to Windows Server Essentials.  Last night, Microsoft released the previews through its MSDN and TechNet programs for its server platforms, which include a feature called “Desktop Experience”—an add-on which gives the server versions of the platform the same interface as Windows 8.1. As a result, Microsoft has tipped its hand about some of the interface changes it will be showing in the preview of the client, which it will release later this week. Here’s a quick look at the most significant changes in the interface we’ve found in our first hands-on with the preview revisions.   Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Hands-on with the Windows “Blue” desktop experience

Server Farms Flourish In Iowa: Microsoft Plows $700M More Into Des Moines

1sockchuck writes “A big chunk of the Azure cloud will be living on the plains of Iowa. Microsoft will invest another $700 million to expand its Iowa data center campus near Des Moines, marking the third major server farm for the state this year. Facebook recently announced a new data center in Altoona. The same day, Google said it would put another $400 million into its facility in Council Bluffs. Why Iowa? Aggressive tax incentives and a central location to bridge the distance between these companies’ east and west coast server footprints.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Server Farms Flourish In Iowa: Microsoft Plows $700M More Into Des Moines

Verizon Accused of Intentionally Slowing Netflix Video Streaming

colinneagle writes “A recent GigaOm report discusses Verizon’s ‘peering’ practices, which involves the exchange of traffic between two bandwidth providers. When peering with bandwidth provider Cogent starts to reach capacity, Verizon reportedly isn’t adding any ports to meet the demand, Cogent CEO Dave Schaffer told GigaOm. ‘They are allowing the peer connections to degrade,’ Schaffer said. ‘Today some of the ports are at 100 percent capacity.’ Why would Verizon intentionally disrupt Netflix video streaming for its customers? One possible reason is that Verizon owns a 50% stake in Redbox, the video rental service that contributed to the demise of Blockbuster (and more recently, a direct competitor to Netflix in online streaming). If anything threatens the future of Redbox, whose business model requires customers to visit its vending machines to rent and return DVDs, it’s Netflix’s instant streaming service, which delivers the same content directly to their screens.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Verizon Accused of Intentionally Slowing Netflix Video Streaming

Kickass Torrents’ KAT.ph Domain Seized By Philippine Authorities

hypnosec writes “Kickass Torrents hasn’t been accessible since sometime yesterday, and now it has been confirmed that the domain name of the torrent website has been seized by Philippine authorities. Local record labels and the Philippine Association of the Recording Industry said that the torrent site was doing ‘irreparable damages’ to the music industry and following a formal complaint the authorities resorted to seizure of the main domain name. The site hasn’t given up, and is operating as usual under a new domain name. The government of the Philippines has confirmed that the domain name has been seized based on formal complaints and copyright grounds.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Kickass Torrents’ KAT.ph Domain Seized By Philippine Authorities