“BufferBloat: What’s Wrong With the Internet?”
February 2012 | Vint Cerf, Van Jacobson, Nick Weaver, and Jim Gettys, Communications of the ACM
Press
Internet delays are now as common as they are maddening. That means they end up affecting system engineers just like all the rest of us. And when system engineers get irritated, they often go looking for what's at the root of the problem. Take Jim Gettys, for example. His slow home network had repeatedly proved to be the source of considerable frustration, so he set out to determine what was wrong, and he even coined a term for what he found: bufferbloat.
"Online Privacy Could Keep You and Your Home Safe from Robberies"
January 11, 2012 | Kristen Kella, Northwestern University Medill Reports
Social media and mapping web sites are tools of the trade for criminals looking for the perfect house to rob, ex-burglars told researchers in the United Kingdom. Nearly 80 percent of the burglars used social media to case homes, they told the Crimestoppers Trust, and the wealth of online information helps make an efficient operation of a burglary.
"Internet Accounts for Almost 2 Percent of the World’s Total Energy Consumption"
October 30, 2011 | Paras Shah, The Daily Californian
UC Berkeley researchers have estimated that it takes between 1 and 2 percent of the world’s energy to construct, run and maintain the Internet. According to the research, which will be presented Nov. 14 at the Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks in Cambridge, Mass., the Internet uses between 170 and 307 gigawatts — about 1.1 to 1.9 percent of the 16 terrawatts of energy consumed by humanity.
"The Internet is Responsible for 2% of the Entire World’s Energy Usage”
October 27, 2011 | Eric Limer, Geekosystem
When you’re trying to figure out statistics about something as nebulous and pervasive as “the Internet,” you’re going to have to performs some interesting mental contortions. After all, how many things out there are connected to the Internet? How many of those things would you consider to be actively “using” it, how much power is there in the world? All valid and difficult questions, valid and difficult questions that Justin Ma and Barath Raghavan, of UC Berkeley and the International Computer Science Institute respectively, were determined to tackle.
“Internet Responsible for 2 per Cent of Global Energy Usage"
October 26, 2011 | Jim Giles, New Scientist
How much energy does the internet use? It's hard to know where to start. There's the electricity consumed by the world's laptops, desktops and smart phones. Servers, routers and other networking equipment suck up more power.
“What Is Nicira Up To?"
October 17, 2011 | Quentin Hardy, Bits Blog, The New York Times
With $40 million in funding, an all-star bench of investors and engineers, and technology that has already drawn spies, Nicira is an unusually visible company in the supposedly secretive “stealth” stage of its early life.
“Cutting Down on Spam”
October 7, 2011 | Ania Monaco, The Institute
Despite e-mail filters, spam has become an often annoying part of our daily lives. Each day, many of us sift through a deluge of unwanted messages that find their way along with the good stuff into our inboxes. From advertisements for pharmaceuticals to discounted golf balls, the spam trail can seem endless. But what if there were a way to put a chokehold on all that junk mail?
"Priv3 Firefox Extension Stops Social Networks Tracking You"
October 6, 2011 | Will Shanklin, Geek.com
We all know that the internet has become saturated with social networking. If you can read it on the web, chances are you can also “Like” it. It’s only natural that, if you share something, Facebook or Google will know that you visited that page. It’s also likely that they’ll use that data to sell advertising. What most of us don’t know, however, is that those same networks can track your visits to many pages even if you don’t click on any sharing buttons. Enter Priv3, a new extension for Firefox that only allows your visits to be tracked when you want them to.
"Priv3 Selectively Stops Third-Party Sites from Sending Your Info to Facebook, Google, Twitter, and More"
September 27, 2011 | Alan Henry, Lifehacker
Firefox: It's not just Facebook that's actively tracking your movements on the Web without your consent: Google, LinkedIn, and others do the same, although most other services make it easier to opt out. If you want to use those services when you want without trading your privacy for the privilege, Priv3 is a Firefox extension that gives you back the ability to choose.
"An Analysis of the Pay-Per-Install Underground Economy"
September 7, 2011 | Chester Wisniewski, Naked Security
A few weeks ago at the USENIX Security Symposium, researchers Juan Caballero, Chris Grier, Christian Kreibich and Vern Paxson presented their paper "Understanding the Underground Economy," a look into the inner workings of the pay-per-install underground economy. What is pay-per-install? Security researchers use the term to describe one of the most popular malware distribution methods. In the malware economy, criminals have specialized to perform specific services and contract with one another the same as in the legitimate world.