TechBulletin

While DNS access is at the centre of internet usage, it is very rare for hackers to actually hit these sites and have a major impact. 

Unfortunately in a chilling blast from the past, i.e. a similar attach in 2002, South Korean hackers have managed to disable three of the thirteen server at UltraDNS, the company which looks after DNS address ending in a variety of suffixes. 

The main suffix hit was the “.org” tag which has historically been used by a number of governments for both their public and secret websites.  The servers were disabled by sending masses of spam data to the servers over a large space of time, eventually leading to three servers “falling”. 

While the attack in 2002 had more widespread repercussions due to the fact that there were less servers in the system, many internet users would not have noticed the recent attack because of the back up and additional servers in place.  Even though there has been no widespread disruption or damage to the sites in question, many are starting to wonder if we will see an increase in such attacks over the coming months.

While internet security has increased dramatically over the last few years, it seems that the most basic of prolonged attacks can still have an impact.

While many groups have criticised the video gaming industry for the damage caused to the eyes and lives of children in particular, a recent study has found out that there may be benefits to “moderate” use of video games.  How can this be?

A study by researchers in the US has identified a number of benefits to playing video games, not least the stimulation to both the eyes and the brain.  It seems that action video games in particular change the way in which our brains process visual information, making the brain more alert to surrounding visuals and able to process changes quicker.

The researchers took a group of graduate students and gave them eye tests prior to the study.  The group was then split into two and one group was exposed to a degree of video game playing, with the other left to lead normal lives.  After a pre-determined time period the groups then returned to under go another round of eye tests.  Remarkably the group who had been exposed to video gaming scored higher in the second eye test, while the other group showed no change compared to the initial tests.

Researchers are now speculating that it may be possible to use video games to assist and correct a number of eye conditions, increasing alertness and responsiveness along the way.  Let the games begin….

While the new Windows Vista operating system is out there in the market place, it seems that all is not well with Microsoft’s much awaited system.  Apple have strongly recommended that iPod users refrain from upgrading to Vista ahead of compatibility “patches“ required to steady the system.

It appears that one of the potential side-effects of upgrading your iPod to Windows Vista is the chance of major corruption to the device.  Apple have also issued advice about connecting iPods to a desktop port supported by Windows Vista, as there is the chance that songs downloaded via the Vista software port may not be compatible with the iPod internal software.

In general Windows Vista has been fairly well received, although there are concerns from both regulators and third parties such as Apple, that the lack of discussion and co-operation in the development of the system will prevent immediate universal acceptance.  Even though so-called “fix patches” are common place in the computing world, it is a little worrying to see the current level of concerns being expressed publicly.

While there is no doubt that the Vista operating system is an improvement on all before, there are still a number of issues to address before everybody will be content with the safety and comparability aspects.

As the influence of the internet continues to grown, moving into all areas of society, there is speculation that we may soon see a new entrant to the massive search engine market - a competitor for the all conquering Google?

Rumour has it that France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchinson Whampoa, Telecom Italia, Cingular and Vodafone have all arranged to meet up at a major forthcoming mobile telecom show in Barcelona.  It appears that they are looking to discuss the creation of their own search engine service for mobiles, something that may well have a long term impact on the traditional search engine companies such as Google, MSN and Yahoo.

While the idea of a new service has been mooted, many believe that this is the first in a series of bargaining tools and the opportunity to open up discussions with the likes of Google.  If the major mobile phone network companies act together, they have the combined power to stand their ground against Google, etc.

As the merger of mobile communications and the internet continues, many in the industry are seeing the potential for a very lucrative new market.  While Google have dictated the online market of late, they may have met their match with the mobile network leaders.

While the rush to pre-order PS3’s in the UK continues to build, retail outlet HMV seem to be taking advantage of the long awaited launch.

While it is now standard to take pre-orders for new games consoles, HMV have stated that customers must buy a PSP system as well as a PS3 if they wish to pre-order.  The full value of the whole package is a whopping £675, and you are not even guaranteed a PS3 at launch!

Even though the games console market has taken on a new lease of life over recent months, with added online functionality and improved graphics / sound, there is some concern at the price of the new system - which is ultimately aimed at the younger end of the market.  Even though this new development from HMV has nothing to do with Sony, there are fears that they will feel a backlash from a consumer already questioning the pricing structure for recent releases.

If the UK release of the PS3 were to hit any more problems there is a chance that customer loyalty to the Sony console may suffer.  Sony are already under financial pressure from the launch delays, as well as increased research and development costs.  Are Sony in the last chance saloon? Time will tell.

At a time when the games console market is on its knees with launch delays, bugs and sky high pricing, who in their right mind would be looking to join the crowd? If you believe the recent comments attributed to both companies, and intense speculation on the internet, it seems that both Dell and Nokia are looking at high profile gaming launches this year.

While the current big three in the market, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have all had their problems of late, there is no doubt that they have a major strangle hold on the market. The reason for the possible new entrants to the market may lie in the fact that the Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 have all ventured outside of their traditional gaming environment into a more multi-media based area of industry.  This is what may have prompted the response from Dell and Nokia, as they look to put down a marker for the future and protect their area of the market.

While you would not normally expect new entrants to the gaming market to have a major impact, the likes of Dell and Nokia already have a loyal customer base and a high reputation in their specialist fields.  While many market observers have been surprised by the cost of recent gaming products such as the Playstation 3, etc, we may see some price deflation if their market positions were to be put under threat.

To many it may sound like a gimmick, but the launch of a music search engine called Midomi (Midomi.com) has the potential to break into new areas of voice recognition. Recently released in beta form by Melodis (Melodis.com), Midomi is a voice activated recognition system geared towards the music market.

The website allows you to either sing, hum or whistle your favourite song, and the search engine will analyse the tune, words, etc and search its vast database of songs to find a match.  While you may believe that it is impossible to search on the above criteria, the system is built around a very powerful recognition system called the Multimodal Adaptive Recognition System (MARS). 

The high tech MARS system actually strips down the sound input to words, pitch, tempo, etc.  The system is then capable of ignoring the speech element if the user hums or sings the song, allowing for a more defined search criteria.

The site is part of a social network which allows users to tag and store their favourite songs, which are then automatically added to the search engine database.  As the database of songs is ever growing, the array of songs will always be changing with the times.

The algorithms and filtering system behind this venture can be used in a variety of areas of business in the future.  This is no gimmick and could literally change the way we search for information on the internet.