Web and links

Babylonian language, revived online

Several linguists worldwide have compiled an online collection of Babylonian texts spoken language to allow anyone to find out how the language sounds that dominate the Middle East just two and a half thousand years, informs Yahoo News

Among the texts are found recorded Epic of Gilgamesh and Hammurabi's Code, which contains the oldest laws in history. Professor Martin Worthingtington from Cambridge University said that the language sounds like a mixture of Arabic and Italian.

The sounds were reconstructed using a comparison with other related languages such as Hebrew and Arabic. They also used words written in Greek or Babylonian Aramaic.

Babylon is one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and texts stored in the form of clay tablets in the literature is the beginning of all humanity. Thirty recordings are available at www.speechisfire.com.

Only 2% of Japan's Internet users use Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, is one of the most famous people in the U.S. and the whole online environment. However his name is little known in Japan, one of the most developed countries with the world's communications infrastructure, says The New York Times.

Less than two million people use Facebook in Japan, which is more than 2% of the population accessing the Internet in this country, while U.S. 60% of internet users have an account on Facebook, according to a study published Socialbakers.

Social networks used mainly by Japanese (Mixi, Gree and Mobage-town) allow them to hide their identity, compared with up imposing more restrictions in this regard and that promotes the name of accounts which include user's name and surname.

Internet users in Japan often use aliases or nicknames.

"Facebook meets a challenge in Japan, "said Shigenori Suzuki, an analyst at Nielsen / NetRatings. "In Japan we have a series of strong rivals and up over a sum of factors related to web culture of this country, " said Shigenori Suzuki.

Microsoft move some of the activities in Egypt, due to interruption of the Internet

Microsoft has decided to temporarily relocate to other countries a part of operations in Egypt because of serious problems with the Internet, writes Computerworld. And other technology companies are ready to take action, and how the situation will worsen with the Internet will be interrupted more. On Friday, the government in Cairo has ordered four largest Internet service providers to interrupt services so that only one supplier with less than 10% of the market has functional services.

Egypt has managed since 2000 to attract more technology companies in industrial parks where multinationals are special offers call center or software development. However, "up" the Internet starts to have negative effects on the local IT industry, Microsoft has moved from Egypt and some of its operations because the tense situation in the country and cut internet connections were disrupted business call - center site.

HP last week advised its employees to work from home on Egypt not to put their safety in danger, but became useless advice since the Internet is virtually non-existent.

The state has created industrial parks where they came from multinationals, the largest accommodating 28,000 employees at 120 companies.

The government cut internet access to prevent the protesters to communicate with them and working poor telephone services. The protests came on the sixth day, and the number of victims has passed 125.

China has censored the word "Egypt" sites of micro-blogging

The word "Egypt" was censored on Saturday on several sites of micro-blogging in China, where political, democratic claims and street protests are not Communist Party's favorite topics AFP.

On sites of micro-blogging sina.com and sohu.com, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter (and it censored in China), a search with the word "Egypt" generates the following result: "Under current laws, your search results not can be communicated. "

Official media, especially television agency Xinhua and CCTV, however, showed the protests in Egypt and led the movement to challenge the regime of Hosni Mubarak.

Censorship in China is very active when it comes to preventing criticism of the government or human rights issues.

Internet is 'clean' politically sensitive sites and Beijing tightly controls the community of 450 million Chinese Internet users to avoid a possible organization of dissident or foreign influences.

How important are social networks in popular uprisings - Stratfor analysis

The role of social networks like Facebook or Twitter or revolution protests drew special attention from the press in recent years and produced a general impression that the network facilitates the organization of actions to change the regime in one country or another. But social media alone can not trigger the revolution and can just as well to help the organizers of the protest movements and those who are the target of protests, shows a Stratfor analysis, which starts at the influence of online communication in case of protests in Egypt.

According to analysis by Marko provender and Sean Noonan, now social media is supposed to weaken support for authoritarian regimes, even in Iran or Myanmar. Even Barack Obama, in his recent interview on YouTube, social networking compared with fundamental rights such as freedom of expression.

But, says Stratfor, social media may not cause alone, revolutions and riots in Tunisia and Egypt in their role was not much different from that of tapes recorded by Ayatollah Khomeini in the speeches of the Iranian revolution in 1979. Social media are tools that enable revolutionary groups to reduce costs as the organization of protests or recruitment. But they have both advantages and disadvantages, and their efficiency depends on the ability of leaders to use them and how accessible they are for those who can use them, says Stratfor.

How social networks have been used in protests in recent years:

    * In Tunisia and Egypt, increased usage of Facebook and Twitter to organize, communicate and trigger campaigns of civil disobedience and street protests.
    * The "Green Revolution" in Iran, in 2009, events have been followed by Western media via YouTube or Twitter.
    * Riots in Moldova in 2009, were called "Twitter Revolution" since it was used by participants in the demonstrations.
    * For foreign observers, especially for the media, these networks have been very helpful to track events and to gather information in real time.


What can and can not do social networking, according to Stratfor analysis:

    * A revolution involves much more than those seen on the Internet - requires organization, funding and popular support. Social media offers advantages in disseminating messages and quickly among a large number of people, but are vulnerable to protests against government tactics.
    * Social networking sites allow organizers, at very little cost, involve a large number of people in a protest movement, but not necessarily enable them to determine these people - often hidden in the anonymity allowed some networks - to go out into the street.
    * The Internet allows a revolutionary group to spread the message not only ideological, but also the training program and operational plan. Call to protest at a time, can be done in seconds and no longer necessarily need to prepare for a demonstration of a specific date.
    * A motion to reduce his costs and organizational communication using social networks may depend less external funding and can thus create the impression that it is a movement without external support and a large number of local supporters. On his Facebook page, the group supported the Egyptian Movement April 6 as a protest of 28 January was attended by almost 90,000 people, but, according to estimates by Stratfor, the number of participants was much lower.
    * Stratfor show that this movement is made up of Egyptians have access to the Internet, given that, according to estimates from 2009, only 15.4% of Egypt's population has access to the Internet - more than most African countries, but less than most countries in the Middle East. And to be successful, a revolutionary movement must reach different segments of the population such as workers, pensioners and farmers, who are unlikely to have access to the Internet in most developing countries.
    * Organizers of the protests must prove ingenuity to counteract the disruptive tactics of the authorities, as happened in Egypt where, after being cut off all access to the Internet, the protesters called the "old" faxes, phone calls and printed materials to communicate .


How are social networks or can be tackled in the event of riots, according to Stratfor:

    * Authorities may have access to messages posted on Facebook, for example, including those protected or private and social networks can become such a sensitive tool for collecting information concerning the organization of protests.
    * When the organizers of the protests is based too much on social media to disseminate their messages, their activities may suffer deeply when the regime cut all access to the Internet, as happened in Egypt.
    * Governments and intelligence services can easily monitor social networking sites to find the latest information about users watch, for example through their Facebook profiles, offering images, contacts, information on where to find them. In Egypt, nearly 40 leaders of the Movement were arrested April 6 at the beginning of the protests, and this may have been facilitated by monitoring their activities on the Internet, especially on Facebook.
    * Web pages of protest movements can be completely closed by the authorities - which often happened in Iran or China. In July 2009, China had cut all access to the Internet throughout the Xinjiang autonomous region, after the Uighur ethnic unrest because of their banned websites could be accessed using IP addresses from outside the country
    * On the other hand, social media can be used by regimes appealed to his advantage, dezinformand, scaring them or luring them protesters to protest in a certain place, where the intervention forces can 't wait.
    * In the U.S., officials who were monitoring anti-WTO protests or anti-G8, for example, could learn in advance where the demonstrators were to gather to send police forces there.


Stratfor noted in its analysis that blocking access to the Internet any way reduced the number of participants in the protests in Egypt. A new medium with its own advantages and disadvantages of social networks triggered a protest movement, but allow their members to communicate more easily. General climate must be conducive to revolution (serious economic problems, corruption and oppression), and the people be motivated to mobilize large scale. "There are Facebook groups, YouTube videos and tweets about anything, but do not automatically mean that they are popular. A neo-Nazi who post messages on the Internet in the basement family home in Illinois will not trigger a revolution in the U.S., regardless of how writing and say it, "insisted Stratfor.

Google published an interactive book about the Internet

Google announced Friday that it has published an online guide to the Internet for beginners called "20 things I learned about web browsers. Interactive book is available online and address issues ranging from simple themes, such as "What is the Web and how it works?"to more complicated topics, such as "What is HTML 5?".

The guide is illustrated by the famous German artist Christoph Niemann, known for his illustrations of several books for children.

The book comes in a context where a survey last year by Google, only 8% of respondents could correctly answer the question "What is a browser?".

Bulgaria among the countries with the highest level of internet piracy

Bulgaria is among the countries with the highest level of piracy on the Internet in Central and Eastern Europe, was announced at the Forum BAIT 2.10 Week held in Sofia Novinite informs.

Matthew Lambert, coordinator of the U.S. Department of Justice and Intellectual Property Law Enforcement in Eastern Europe, said about 100% of pirated software and files in Central and Eastern Europe are distributed online.

He also said that Bulgaria is among the countries with highest piracy, content for which was not previously obtained a license is distributed mostly on the Internet.

Forum organized by the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies (BAIT) took place on November 29 in Sofia.

Internet should win the Nobel Peace Prize?

The Internet has entered this year's competition for the Nobel Peace Prize. Awarding the prize to a structure that is neither an individual nor a group of people is perfectly justified. "Marx would certainly understand why people favor the detriment of processes and structures, is an error. " May remains one question: is the internet candidate for this award?

Philosopher and chief editor of the "Philosophers' Magazine has done an analysis taken from the BBC which would be to indicate to what extent the internet would be a suitable candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. Among the positive aspects include the fact that the Internet allows coexistence in an open, tolerant, and focused on discussion and debate. However the Internet fosters harmony rather than conflict situations. Moreover contribute to the depersonalization of people about which psychologists say that it leads to aggressive behavior.

Those nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize Internet may be right when it says that "failure to communicate has always been the most effective antidote to hatred and conflict. " With all these conditions and how this communication takes place are equally important.

E-house. Future Home

At first glance, science fiction is all about: Electronic devices work only when the current tariff is lower, radiators controlled by mobile phone, 3D TVs that talk. This is the reality but the near future. All the above features mentioned before, but many others are already happening. They are found in a modern house, a house called E-house, like the one presented at the international electronics fair IFA in Berlin and telecommunications.

The brain works like the Internet

According to a recent study brain seems to resemble a vast interconnected network like the Internet, reports BBC. This information is contrary view "top-down" of the human brain, specific to the 19th century.

Research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America can contribute to the complete map of the nervous system.

The novelty of this research is that the injection of two markers was performed while at the same point: one that showed how it is going signals and one which showed the direction they come from these signals. This approach can display up to four levels of connection.

Such an interconnected structure was intuitive in the past, proved to be an important tool for analyzing how the brain processes information, but this has not been demonstrated so far.