If you believe all the news coming out of the Googleplex this week, then you can’t help but realize that Google Plus (Google +, G+) has gained a lot of new members since its August 2011 launch.  How many?  According to Google, there are now 90 million registered users of Google +.   Most of the early joiners were those early adopter geeky types who like to beta test everything that comes along.  But now, more regular folks are starting to get in on the action.  

If you are one of the people who is now incredibly curious about Google’s new social network, but you don’t know exactly what it is, what it does, or how to get it, please take a moment and watch the video below.  This is Google’s introduction to Google +, and it’s just what you need to get started if you’re thinking of signing on.

Do you think you already know which country has the world’s fastest download speeds? I bet you weren’t thinking South Korea. But according to a new study from Pando Networks, South Korea is top of the world in terms of download speed, averaging 17.62 Mbps, which is much higher than the United States, which only averages 4.93 Mbps.  How could that be, you wonder?  Isn’t the United States supposed to be the leader in everything?  It’s actually number 26 in the world for Internet speed.  

The slowest countries in the world seem to all be confined to Africa, where infrastructure isn’t as robust, and services vary wildly from state to state within the continent.  You might also be surprised at the speeds in countries like China and Japan.  This infographic from Pando Networks gives us an interesting glimpse at the speeds as they vary between the states in the USA, and in other countries.  Click to enlarge:

Sixty seconds might not seem like a very long time, but it’s time enough for all kinds of things to take place over the Internet.  Today I’m going to share an infographic that I found this morning and thought you might enjoy seeing;  it captures how much of some of the Internet’s most popular activities can transpire in just 1 minute and it’s fascinating to learn just how many emails get sent in 60 seconds, or how many new YouTube videos are uploaded, or how many iPhone apps are downloaded in that tiny span of time.

I found the number of new blogs launched each minute to be especially interesting:  60+ new blogs are born every minute.  That’s means that in the time it’s taken me to write this paragraph, as many as 120 new blogs just went live.  That’s something to think about.  Click on the picture below to view it full size.  You’re in for a treat!

If you’ve never been Rickrolled, you just haven’t lived.  Rickrolling is a tradition that began a few years ago, and involves being punked, basically by the old 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up,”  by singer Rick Astley.  On the Internet, it involved clicking a link you thought was to something you really wanted to see, but instead being redirected to the video for this song and having to watch it to the end.  Rickrolling is still going strong today.  Learn more about this Internet phenomenon below:

Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable, and several other of largest ISPs have now officially consented to beef up their efforts to protect the rights of copyright owners.  This is the first unified step taken by a large group of internet service providers, and is heralded as long overdue, but welcome by  the recording industry and the motion picture industry.  Their joint statement to the public:

“Leaders from the movie, television, music and Internet service provider communities today announced a landmark agreement on a common framework for ‘Copyright Alerts, that will educate and notify Internet subscribers when their Internet service accounts possibly are being misused for online content theft. This voluntary landmark collaboration will educate subscribers about content theft on their Internet accounts, benefiting consumers and copyright holders alike.”

Online downloading of digitally protected content such as music, music videos, and movies, is illegal.  The new agreement gives the music and film industries a  solid leg to stand on for fighting online illegal downloading of works that are copyrighted. Illegal streaming services are not currently covered by this initiative.   It is estimated that online piracy of software, music, and films costs the U.S. economy billions in lost revenue and jobs each year.  Some of the jobs lost have been replaced by positions in other industries, such as legalherbsdirect.com, and other available jobs.
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and Motion Picture Association of America (or, MPAA), have struggled for several years to convince ISPs to take a stand for anti-piracy.  The new means of enforcing these policies is not much different from the old ways.  The ISPs will send warnings to people who are suspected of illegal downloads, and will make them aware of penalties that can be leveraged against them.  If these methods fail to motivate the offending parties, the ISPs will take increasingly stronger positions with those customers. ISPs have a vested interest in maintaining good relationships with young customers, however, and this may keep them from actively prosecuting most of the people who engage in illegal downloads.

Others see this move by the ISPs as just a front, with no real intention to enforce behind it.  Time will tell whether these ISPs really mean business or not.

This morning, yet another story about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg hit the Internet.  Today, we should expect to hear a rabid backlash from PETA, because as it turns out, Zuckerberg has revealed that he’s killing his own meat.  Which is kind of weird, considering that he tends to eat a mostly vegetarian diet.  A chef friend introduced him to the concept of only eat the meat that you kill with your own bare hands, so M.Z. has decided that he’s going to live according to that principal.  But should animal rights activists organizations like PETA be up in arms over the public announcement?

I think, no.  The reason is, Zuckerberg makes an excellent ethical point in his statement:  that people tend to consume meat, ignoring as much as possible where it comes from, and how it came to be there.  People can easily overlook the fact that in order for them to eat meat, an animal must die.  In our age of modern agriculture and livestock farming,  it is easy to overlook that fact.  Zuckerberg’s idea seems to be that if you’re going to eat meat, you should be thankful for it, and respectfully aware of what had to happen in order for you to have it. cableinternetbundles.com This stance, I believe, represents a spirit of great compassion towards animals.   It projects a responsible human attitude concerning their ethical treatment, and our obligation as stewards over them.   This “if you are going to eat it, then you should be willing to kill it yourself” philosophy could spark a movement where people turn away from viewing livestock as pretty, prepared cuts in meat markets to viewing them as living creatures sharing this planet and its resources with us humans.

And it could ultimately bring an end to this unethical animal farming we have closed our eyes to for the past forty years or so.  Yes, that’s dreaming big.  But a big dream is a beginning.

I’ve spent most of my adult life trying to live a vegetarian lifestyle.  I haven’t always felt healthy.  I’ve eaten a lot of less nutritious food than I should have, and not gone out of my way at times to insure I’m getting adequate amounts of healthy lean protein from non-animal sources.  I’ve also had times when I failed miserably and went on excessive meat eating binges, typically involving meat prepared in the worst ways possible from a nutritional standpoint.  There are plenty of ways everyday people can eat meat ethically, however, and nutritionally, and sleep with a quieter conscience.  Free range animals who are allowed to live a full and happy life of grazing on natural foods are considered organic.  Organic eating, even when meat is included, is a more ethical and human way of eating meat.

Ancient rabbinical laws concerning the killing of animals for meat demonstrate a sense of human responsibility to animals that dates back to the pre-Christian era.  Some modern day adherents to Judaism still observe the laws of kosher, which carefully dictate how animals used for food should be treated (and killed.)  The modern world has detached itself from these ways, but what Mark Zuckerberg has stated brings them back to mind.

In an amazing announcement two weeks ago, Apple released to news media outlets its plans to start using ARM chips in its laptops.  This will mark a significant departure from the more recent Intel microchips Apple adopted in 2005/2006.  Then, Apple was still using Motorola and IBM PowerPC microprocessors in its complete line of desktop and laptop computers.  Switching to Intel was a giant step for the Cupertino based luxury computer company best known for innovations, and tag lines like “Think different.”

The use of ARM technology has been happening at Apple for several years now — but never in its laptop lineup.  The A4 and A5 processors have been used in recent iPhones and iPads, with great success  on these devices running iOS.  People are already speculating about Mac OS X’s probably performance on an ARM processor, and some have even guessed that Mac OS X is on its way out, to be replaced entirely by iOS, or perhaps an amalgamation of the two.

This should not be read as a sign that sales of Apple’s wildly popular tablet have cannibalized laptop and desktop sales for the company, although it may be that in the so called “post PC era” Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced in January, more people are attracted to the touch screen mobile devices and the operating systems they share.

“Lots of people are living in that post-PC era already,” notes Jim Kowalski, “They love the idea of an always-on connection, having their documents and files ready to go from the cloud, and being able to interact in a meaningful way with technology.  The touch screens on iPad, iPod and iPod touch, and iPhone are definitely setting  a standard in the world.  More and more, people seem to be looking towards these innovative leadership strides to carry them through the next wave of development.  Maybe its a transition they want, from traditional desktop and laptop computers, to something just as practical and powerful, but also as portable as an iPad.”

The Internet and technology has grown in such a way that many of the things that we used to do as a society has now moved to the world wide web. One of the biggest things that has changed with the introduction of the Internet is that of communication.

If you are a person who uses the internet a lot and you see that your personal computer is beginning to slow down and you are thinking about investing in a new computer you want to make sure what kind of computer you will need. If you are just needing something for school, going online and being able to write papers you may want to look into getting a net book.

topple track are the type of computers that are very cheap, they do no comes with disc drives but they are able to go online and have a decent amount of memory to save work. They are pretty compact; they are very light so you would be able to take it on the go whether it is to school or just to a friend’s house. These types of laptops are used for school mostly because you just need it for the basic things.

If you are a gamer and looking for a high end gaming computer you will want to know that gaming computers can be quite expensive,they can range into the thousands. What you want to look into when thinking about getting a gaming computer is how much RAM you will needs, you also want to see what high end games the computer you want would be able to run on high settings.

You will also want to make sure that it will have enough hard drive space for you, there are many types of computers and they can do many thinks for your specific hobby or need. When looking at where to buy your computer you would want to check on any online websites.

Most online websites would offer free shipping and the computers themselves can be cheaper online than if you were to buy the at a retail store. You will want to make sure that the website you buy your computer on has very good positive reviews.

You want to make sure will they deliver it in a timeless manner and will it be undamaged. If you do not want to buy it online you can check online for any store listings that may have the computer you want. You want to make sure that when you go to the store that you ask them many questions about their company.

You want to ask them what their company offer for the computer and what warranties will you get with the computer.
When buying a new computer it can become a very big investment but it is something that most people will need in their everyday lives to do certain kinds of taste whether it is their job or school and computer can come in handy. You will want to be sure who you are buying it from and to make sure no one tries to scam you for extra money or your personal information so be wary about scam sites and be sure that their website is secure by up to date security systems.