Americas #1 USENET Provider
The NewsDemon Blog
Broadband Intiative: Free Wi-Fi USENET Access Nationwide
March 12th, 2010
Could another influx of USENET newsgroup subscribers be on the horizon? At the Digital Inclusion Summit in Washington on Tuesday, Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said his agency is considering establishing “free or very low cost” wireless Internet service for the entire nation.
“In order to ensure long-term American competitiveness, we must not leave one-third of the nation behind,” Genachowski said. “The National Broadband Plan provides a vision for federal, state and local leadership and partnerships with private and nonprofit communities that will bridge the digital divide and transform America into a nation where broadband expands opportunities for all.”
The FCC provided few details about how it would carry out such a plan and who would qualify, but will make a recommendation under the National Broadband Plan set for release next week. The agency will determine details later. The number of Americans online grew nearly threefold from 85 million to 231 million between 1998 and 2008, according to reports from Usenet newsgroups. The FCC plan would extend broadband online service to an estimated 93 million Americans who the agency describes as being “left behind in the digital age.” and could dramatically help grow the USENET newsgroup community.
Both the FCC and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration are charged with mapping out where broadband is, and isn’t, as part of the national plan to deploy broadband nationwide. Debate has already begun over the proposal to offer the cheap or free wireless broadband, which would involve taking back at least some of the privately owned TV spectrum.
The cost of the plan, which will be submitted to Congress on March 17, is said to be in the neighborhood of $25 billion. According to the FCC, 4 percent of American homes do not have access to broadband Internet, and three in 10 people in the U.S. do not have high-speed Internet because of factors such as price. A survey by the FCC provides a great detail of figures of those without access in the US.
Newsgroups: Quake Shifted Axis And Shortened Day
March 2nd, 2010
Feeling behind as if time is working against you? You may be right. Due to the magnitude of the earthquake that hit Chile recently, it may have changed the planet’s rate of rotation and shortened our days. The 8.8 earthquake has been reported by NASA scientists on space related newsgroups that earth’s axis likely shifted by about 3 inches, shortening the day by about 1.26 microseconds.
USENET newsgroups have been covering this story and have been discussing on how moving hundreds of kilometers of rock underground can change the earth’s distribution of mass, and, in turn, change the planet’s rate of rotation. When an earthquake hits with the magnitude of the one in Chile, it moves this lot of rock under the ground which has caused the earth’s axis to slightly shift and shortening the day, as the rate of speed the earth spins is how we calculate how long the day is.
If you remember your physics, changes in rotating bodies affect its rotation. The huge 8.8 earthquake in Chile has affected our rotating Earth in just such a way, making it turn a bit faster and giving us 1.26 microseconds less of time.
Some changes may be more obvious, and islands may have shifted, according to Andreas Rietbrock, a professor of Earth Sciences at the U.K.’s Liverpool University who has studied the area impacted, though not since the latest temblor. She reports that Santa Maria Island off the Chilean coast may have been raised 6 feet because of the earthquake, if past quake patterns hold true.
This is not the first, or only, time an earthquake has had such an impact, USENET newsgroups notes. The magnitude 9.1 earthquake that generated the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami shortened the day by 6.8 microseconds. The consequences of both have also taken the lives of many. More than 700 people died in the Chilean earthquake, which struck on the 27 February. NASA experts have said the Chile predictions will likely change as data on the quake are further refined.
Virgin Media Plans To Offer 100MB Connections To USENET
February 26th, 2010
UK members may be getting a speed bump when accessing USENET Newsgroups. Virgin Media, the UK’s leading cable, phone and internet service provider, has announced it will begin the roll-out of a 100Mb broadband service, the fastest available commercial product in the UK, by the end of 2010.
Various ISP and UK related newsgroups have posted that Virgin Media has added 34,200 new cable TV subscribers during the last quarter, taking the provider’s total market share to over 3.7 million. The television and broadband provider has indicated that it will introduce the high-speed internet offering to households across the country by the end of 2010. Its flagship service will also be around 24 times faster than the average speed offered by other internet service providers.
According to Virgin’s website, that would suggest no limits on downloads at all. On the face of it, the policy avoids various peak time traffic management tactics that reduce line bandwidth once a certain transfer threshold has been breached. No word on how USENET related traffic would be handled with this upgrade. The group claimed the service would allow web surfers to download a music album in as little as five seconds, an hour-long TV show in 31 seconds and an high-definition movie in less than eight minutes.
CEO Neil Berkett said: “There is nothing we can’t do with our fiber optic cable network, and the upcoming launch of our flagship 100 megabits service will give our customers the ultimate broadband experience.”
In late 2008, Virgin made its real move to compete with DSL and emerging fiber-based broadband services with its 50 Mbps downstream service, which was more than twice the speed of its 20 Mbps tier.
The new 100Mb service will help the UK catch up with other markets that are pushing ahead with broadband, such as Japan and Korea, which are rolling out 1 GB broadband. Virgin added a total of 28,600 new subscribers in the last three months of last year, the biggest increase since the company’s creation through the merger of NTL and Telewest in 2006. With this new rollout, expect USENET access and activity in the UK to increase significantly.
FCC Promotes US Broadband Initiative
February 23rd, 2010
According to the latest study by the Federal Communications Commission, one in three people in the U.S. don’t have broadband connections. In fact, only a small minority of these 93 million Americans even use the Internet at all: some have dial-up connections and some use Web services at work or at public places like libraries, but most just abstain from the Internet entirely, according to USENET newsgroup reports that posted up the new US Commerce Department figures that reinforce what some educators believe is causing some students to fall behind.
The report posted on USENET newsgroups shows that the telephone survey of 5,005 adults last fall included 2,334 adults who said they are not broadband users at home and precedes the FCC’s delivery of a National Broadband Plan to Congress. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Feb. 16 he wants 100 million U.S. households to have access to ultra high-speed internet connections, with speeds of 100 megabits per second by the year 2020. That would be several times faster than the download speeds many U.S. homes with broadband get now, which range from 3 MBPS to 20 MBPS. One of the first steps towards overhauling the national broadband infrastructure will be the unveiling of a new broadband plan by the FCC on March 17. The FCC began working on the national broadband plan back in April 2009. The FCC is looking at multiple methods of funding a national broadband plan including reallocation of funds collected in the Universal Service Fund.
The Federal Communications Commission’s first-ever survey on Internet usage and attitudes concludes that those who aren’t connected today need to be taught how to navigate the Web, find online information that is valuable to them and avoid hazards such as Internet scams, something that has been a long standing resource that USENET newsgroups has also assisted with. The report found that 78% of adults are Internet users, and 65% of adults are broadband adopters. It then divides users who haven’t got broadband into four groups. The Digitally Distant make up 10% of the general population; this is the group that simply doesn’t want to be online. The Digital Hopefuls make up 8% of the population; they’d like to be online but lack resources to do so; many don’t have a computer and/or don’t know how to use one, and cost of computer and broadband connection is also a big barrier. An exact number of those who routinely use USENET newsgroups while they are online were not specified.
According to the report, nearly half of the respondents said cost was one of the prohibiting factors for not having broadband service at home. What’s more, nearly the same percentage of people said they were uncomfortable using a computer. The National Broadband Plan is expected to target widespread deployment of broadband networks, fueled in part by a revamp of the Universal Service Program that will emphasize broadband rather than voice connectivity, along with a plan to phase-out of traditional phone service, instead using the broadband network to support VOIP.
Happy 32nd Birthday Computerized Bulletin Board System (BBS)
February 17th, 2010
On February 16, 1978, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess launched the first-ever dial-up BBS in Chicago. The idea stemmed during a blizzard that kept them indoors that helped create the first electronic bulletin board and ultimately, one of the first social networks. In modern usage, the term BBS may be used to refer to USENET newsgroups or other online type forums or social network outlets.
The first BBS was visionary as it created a way to circumvent the fundamental, age-old rules of socializing by responding to bulletin board ads found in the foyers of libraries and churches around the world. USENET, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and the entirety of the World Wide Web would later catapult with the same goal in mind.
Online BBSs formed much of the the core “cyberspace” in the 1980s and paved the way for many users to find and use USENET newsgroups. BBS is short for “Bulletin Board System” which is has been a social networking platform that not only predates sites like Myspace and Facebook, but also the World Wide Web. As one of the first online communication methods, users would dial in directly to other users via modem connection and share information. Most BBS networks were not linked in real-time. Instead, each would dial up the next in line, and/or a regional hub, at preset intervals to exchange files. It was the first step of what we know the World Wide Web to be today. A better, simpler system later followed – USENET.
Rather than mirroring the meet-and-greet and services-offered format of real-world bulletin boards, BBSes very quickly became forums. Questions were asked and anonymously answered.
It was several decades before the hardware or the network caught up to Christensen and Suess’ imaginations, but all the basic seeds of today’s online communities were in place when the two launched the first bulletin board, dubbed CBBS for computerized bulletin board system. The two developers announced their creation to the world in the November 1978 issue of Byte magazine.
It’s hard to say where USENET would have been if not for the BBS. As many early adapters, the infant stage of USENET were full of BBS users that formed the most popular newsgroups that exist to this day, thirty years later.
NewsDemon.com Newsgroups Offers Free USENET Access
February 11th, 2010
NewsDemon.com Newsgroups is giving back to the community and offering University faculty and staff, media and website owner’s free access to USENET.
Students, teachers, faculty and/or members of the media are now able to apply for eligibility to free USENET access provided by NewsDemon.com Newsgroups. Webmasters and Bloggers are also welcome to apply.
In an effort to demonstrate the resources that USENET newsgroups provide and by growing the online community, NewsDemon.com Newsgroups has experienced an overwhelmingly positive response since the program inception.
The program, which launched more than a year ago, offers unrestricted access to USENET newsgroups to those who qualify. Benefits include all of the features our members receive which include blazing fast access to over 107,000 newsgroups.
Assisting those that would normally not have access to USENET, the program is being extended and enrollment is open to those interested. In order to apply, visit either our Free USENET for School page for those involved with a school or our Free USENET Access for Media page for all media and online related individuals.
Committed to excellence, NewsDemon.com Newsgroups is proud to be able to give back to the community and offer access to the valuable resources USENET provides.
Newsgroups Report Linux Founder Trovalds Likes Google Nexus One
February 8th, 2010
Linus Torvalds is a programmer and has been known as an honest man. So when he finds something he likes he says so, without artifice, and that’s all it means. Torvalds is the person who created the ever popular open-source Linux kernel which forms the cornerstone of the Android operating system that runs the Google Nexus One alongside a host of operating systems, software and naturally, newsreaders.
Linus Torvalds, who had announced his creation of Linux on USENET newsgroups has proclaimed that the “Google Nexus One is a winner”. Unsurprisingly, the man who invented the most popular open source operating system in the world is a “happy camper” over the fact that this cellphone runs Linux. But Linux alone wasn’t enough to get Linus on board with the rest of the smartphone crazy 21rst century. His previous phones, in fact—the ones he mostly used to “play Galaga” on long flights—also had various versions of Linux, but lacked that certain spark.
After a week of using the new smartphone, Torvalds is now raving about the Google Android based Nexus One:
“I generally hate phones. They’re irritating and disturb you as you work or read or whatever – and a cell phone to me is just an opportunity to be irritated wherever you are,” Torvalds said in a blog post. “But I have to admit, the Nexus One is a winner.”
Torvalds has owned a number of phones before, including Google’s G1 device and ‘one of the early China-only Motorola Linux phones’, but it took for Google to add multi-touch capabilities to the Nexus One before he finally broke down and bought one from the company’s web store. The device can run open-source software created for the Android device including a couple of newsreaders.
Google’s Android operating system used in the Nexus One is built atop a Linux foundation, but the applications typically don’t run on the Linux. Instead, as Android and Google related newsgroups discuss, they run atop Linux on a Java-like layer, Google’s Dalvik virtual machine and accompanying software libraries. Through that technology, another open source foundation, Mozilla, is working on a version of Firefox browser for Android. Recently, newsgroups had discussed rumors that Google was struggling with Nexus One sales, so an unsolicited celebrity endorsement such as this couldn’t have come at a better time.
‘I no longer feel like I’m dragging a phone with me “just in case”’ Linus Torvalds says, ‘… now I’m having a useful (and admittedly pretty good-looking) gadget instead. The fact you can use it as a phone too is kind of secondary.’
Read more about Linus Torvalds, Linux and the Google Android operating system on the largest forum on the planet, USENET newsgroups. Recently, Linux celebrated its 18th Birthday
NewsDemon.com Newsgroups Wins Provider Of The Year and Spirit Of Usenet Awards
February 4th, 2010
NewsDemon.com Newsgroups is awarded both the 2009 Provider Of The Year Award as well as the 2009 Spirit Of USENET Award. Each award was given separately from NewsgroupServers.com and NewsgroupReviews.com
“In all categories, NewsDemon has excelled throughout 2009 as being the number one Usenet access provider in the industry.” NewsgroupServers.com
The review sites independently provides information and rates over 90 USENET Newsgroup providers, newsreaders and other Usenet related tools. For NewsgroupServers.com, rating providers by both their editorial staff and website visitors, NewsDemon.com Newsgroups had been chosen as the top USENET access provider for 2009. For extended efforts to promote the benefits of USENET and other achievements, the popular USENET resource site NewsgroupReviews.com has recognized and awarded NewsDemon.com Newsgroups with the Spirit Of USENET award for 2009.
“It is an honor to present the 2009 Spirit of Usenet Award to NewsDemon. The award is presented in recognition of the many enhancements made to NewsDemon’s Newsgroup services along with their continued efforts to promote the growth of Usenet in 2009.” – NewsgroupReviews.com
“We’re proud to have been recognized and awarded for our efforts.” said Charles Burnside, spokesperson for NewsDemon.com Newsgroups “Our mission has long been to provide outstanding service and support to all of our members. As we look forward in continuing to provide superior service and features, NewsDemon.com Newsgroups plans on even more upgrades for 2010 whilst continuing to give back to the USENET access community.”
Being given these awards, all of us here at NewsDemon.com Newsgroups are further motivated to deliver nothing less than top notch service, support and features as we move into 2010 and beyond. Additionally, our efforts to give back to the community with extended offers, specials and charity related programs as we have done throughout 2009 will continue.
With retention moving past 500 days for binary and faster connections than ever, we’d like to believe we’re on the right start. We’d also like to hear from you. What would you like to see NewsDemon.com Newsgroups improve or add as part of our services? Leave a comment and let us know!
NewsDemon.com Newsgroups Now Offers 50 Simultaneous Connections
February 1st, 2010
NewsDemon.com Newsgroups recently upgraded its services again which now allow access to a total of 50 simultaneous connections. The connection upgrade now allows for faster connections and overall speed when accessing any of the 107,000 newsgroups the USENET access provider carries.
The increase in simultaneous connections is now more than double as NewsDemon.com Newsgroups offers an additional 30 connections to its previous 20 simultaneous connection limit. The increase in simultaneous connections will now allow NewsDemon.com Newsgroup members to access newsgroups easier and faster than ever. By increasing the number of connections, users will have to wait less when accessing multiple articles from any of the thousands of newsgroups that NewsDemon.com Newsgroups carry.
Recently, NewsDemon.com Newsgroups also announced an increase in binary retention that has grown past the 500 day mark. With this new increase in retention, which allows older articles to be retrieved, having an increase to 50 simultaneous connections couldn’t have come at a better time.
The increase to 50 simultaneous connections affects both US and EU customers. The NewsDemon.com Newsgroups member’s area blog offers additional information and advice on how to set up a newsreader to increase the number of connections it allows.
All of these upgrades are included with a NewsDemon.com Newsgroups membership and do not incur any additional charges for any of these upgrades. NewsDemon.com Newsgroups prides itself on providing premium features and services as a trusted name as a USENET access provider. The latest round of upgrades and features from NewsDemon.com Newsgroups are part of the continuing process of delivering premium features and services as a trusted USENET access provider.
Wireless 500 MPS Connections Now Possible
January 25th, 2010
Hey Newsgroups, ready for some really fast speeds? A research project conducted by Siemens, together with the Heinrich Hertz Institute, has recently broken all records for wirelessly transmitting data. By making use of white LEDs (light-emitting diodes) instead of radio waves, researchers have been able to transmit data at 500Mbps. The light-emitting diode used in the test was produced by Osram – a Siemens subsidiary – who transferred data over a distance of 16.4 feet (5 meters).
Researchers in Munich collaborated with researchers from the Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin to achieve the new record. In the wireless technique, data are directly transferred by modulating, via the power supply, the amount of light emitted by the LED. The researchers could successfully transmit data over a distance of up to five meters at 500 Mbps; or, by combining five LEDs; they could transfer data over longer distances at rates of about 100 Mbps. The previous record was 200 MBPS.
The researchers used Ostar LEDs and lights that are modulated at a frequency that enables high-speed data transfers and is one of the brightest LEDs on the market. The changes in brightness due to modulation are indictable to the human eye. A photo detector converts the light signals it receives into electrical pulses on the other end. Siemens refers to this method of transmitting data as VLC (Visible Light Communication), and the company claims that it could be put to use in numerous ways. It could be used to help boost the performance of wireless networks and sustained connections to networks like USENET.
While light data transmission sounds less convenient than RF, there are many instances, like hospitals, when you don’t want extra radio frequencies floating around. Other applications suggested are in transportation, where LED stoplights can transmit information to trains and cars, for example. Siemens mentions that they combined five LEDs to transfer data over “longer distances” at rates up to 100Mbit/s, but didn’t mention exactly how long these distances were. Also, there was no mention as to how other light sources might affect the data transfer, or how much distance negatively affected the data speed.
The press release from the company states, “Increasingly, wireless networks are compromised by the fact that in many buildings the three independent WLAN frequency bands are multiply occupied, which leads to collisions among the data packets. In a situation like this, visible light, as a currently unused and license-free medium, offers a suitable alternative. A further advantage is that this form of data transfer is impervious to interception. Only the photo detector that is positioned directly within the light cone is able receive the data. In other words, it is impossible to ‘tap’ the data transported in the light beam.” The tests were conducted in Berlin by Siemens in conjunction with the Heinrich Hertz Institute.
Could it be that soon you’ll be seeing 500 MBPS offers from your ISP and Usenet Access Provider? Probably not for the next few years. But steps from Siemens and the like are taking it one more step forward to reality. Coincidentally, NewsDemon.com Newsgroups has hit a 500 mark of its own; breaking through the 500 day retention mark, NewsDemon.com Newsgroups is one day away from hitting a new 510 days of binary retention and growing.
