Many of the voices we have heard speaking out about the proposed .XXX top-level domains (TLD) are mostly from the tech community, the adult industry, and politicians with various agendas. Although I rarely use this blog for editorial purposes, I thought it might be helpful for people to consider the perspective of an educator who has worked in all primary and secondary school levels and will soon start working in higher education.

The benefits of having an entire TLD for adult sites is clear if you are in the adult industry, but what some may not have considered is that it can also have advantages for those trying to prevent children from accessing them. It also provides a definite advantage for tech security professionals who are often given the impossible task of trying to limit access.

Make no mistake, it will not solve all problems, and it is doubtful adult and pornographic sites will limit themselves exclusively to .XXX domains, but part of promoting themselves as legitimate businesses involves making a conscious effort to keep children away from their sites. This could work in favor of both sides of the argument if it is used to its full potential. ICANN is again considering it, and time will tell. But it is certainly worth a second thought.

Photo Source: Flickr

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Just days after we posted news about Google’s acquisitions that position it to make a large impact on HTML 5 video development, suspicion is floating around the tech world that Microsoft is planning a big announcement for Internet Explorer 9, the next installment of their declining browser.

If Microsoft intends to keep their commanding share of the browser market, they will need to continue to adapt to web standards. At their MIX 2010 developer conference in Las Vegas, experts predict that Microsoft will unveil a new IE version that takes into account HTML 5 elements, including support for vector graphics like SVG.

Even with IE 8, the current version, Internet Explorer is still far behind competitors like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Opera. If ever there were a time for Microsoft to make a game-changing play, that time is now.

Source: Webmonkey

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As far as the data center realm is concerned, 2010 will be a great year. According to a recent survey conducted by Digital Realty Trust, nearly one-third of corporate data centers will expand this year. In addition, more than 80% of all data centers plan on expanding within the next two years.

Much of the facility expansion is due to a need for more power, not space. Many companies have had to halt their data center expansions due to a lack of credit. Hopefully the economy will continue to improve this year and firms will have less trouble getting investment and loans for data center space. Regardless of what happens, it still looks like 2010 will be all about the data center.

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Given the high cost of electricity, companies are always looking for ways to increase efficiency. This may involve optimizing CPU usage or reducing active cooling, but in the case of Google, Facebook, and soon Goldman Sachs, these companies have found another way go green: integrate batteries into servers.

Data centers spend millions on large UPS systems to provide temporary power during utility outages. A UPS only needs to provide power for a few minutes until generators can be started.

In 2008, Google became the first firm to integrate 12-volt batteries into servers for the same purpose. The technology works likes a charm and now others in the industry are catching on. This new system is not only cheaper and more reliable, but uses less power as well.

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Question: Why do domain registrars require two name servers?

Answer: The short answer to this question is that Internet standards require it according on RFC 1034, published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). But there is a good reason for it.

The intent of the standard is to ensure that domain name servers have redundancy. If one name server goes down, a website will still have at least one more to keep it alive. In other words, your server could be working perfectly fine, but without name servers, no one will see your site. Furthermore, sites with heavy loads might be able to distribute that load between the two name servers.

Because of the above reasons, the intent is to have two distinct name servers, at two locations, using two different IP addresses. If you have your own server and do not have access to a another server for DNS, I recommend using one of the many DNS services that are available at low cost. It will save you trouble in the long run and will make sure your site is up to standards.

Photo: Flickr

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Topeka, a city of 120,000 in America’s Midwest, has changed its official name to Google, Kansas. Before you update your maps, however, take note. The new name is only temporary and will revert back at the end of March.

Topeka made the change in hopes of boosting its chances to become a test site for Google’s “Fiber for Communities” program. The Mountain View company is currently looking for a guinea pig to test a fiber optic Internet service capable of speeds up to 1 gbit per second.

Google hopes to provide service to 50,000 and 500,000 people as part of the trial, making Topeka a perfect match. If the Kansas city isn’t picked, at least it won’t be stuck with the new name.

Photo | Flickr

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Following the current trend among corporations to consolidate IT infrastructure, the U.S. government is making plans to drastically reduce the number of data centers in operation and make its computing more efficient.

Over the last decade, the number of federal data centers has more than doubled to 1100. These facilities consume 6 billion kwH of power yearly. If action is not taken to increase efficiency and save energy, this figure could jump to 12 billion kwH.

Data center consolidation is good for hardware vendors because the government will have to invest in new servers and other equipment to make the change. As far as human resources go, however, a number of server admins and other employees could find themselves jobless as a result of this new trend. Having fewer data centers means there will be less of a need for technicians, security guards, janitorial staff, and other positions.

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What does one do with an outdated and costly data center? Axe it, of course. Yesterday, eBay bused a group of employees out to its Sacramento data center to finish the long process of migrating to a new facility.

Most of the servers at this 8-year-old data center were sold off, except for one. To officially mark the closing of the facility and to celebrate days of hard work, one lucky data center architect was given the opportunity to slice this last piece of equipment in two.

Picture of the axing and closing can be found here. The Sacramento center is just one of many eBay is closing and replacing with more efficient infrastructure.

Photo | Flickr

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Visitors to RollingStone.com were surprised a few days ago when instead of seeing the popular magazine’s website, they were greeted with a generic “coming soon” landing page. The website is now back up, for but some time people speculated that Rolling Stone forgot to renew its domain. What happened?

Luckily for the magazine, the domain had not expired and is actually registered through next September. The issue was most likely a DNS glitch. Regardless of the cause, Rolling Stone most likely lost a good bit of money from this slip.

Source | Mashable
Photo | Flickr

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A market research firm called Dell’Oro Group has released a report that finds the market for ethernet switches has grown by 20% in the last quarter of 2009. Cisco, HP, and Juniper, three of the big players have added $600 million in revenue, and the research firm expects the market to continue to grow in 2010 from $15.6 billion to 16.3 billion.

“Year-end budget spending and supply constraints from the previous quarter helped propel market growth in the fourth quarter,” said Alan Weckel, director of the market research firm’s Ethernet Switch research, in a statement. “We expect the market to continue to expand in 2010, especially as 10 Gigabit Ethernet continues to grow not only as a server connectivity technology, but also as an aggregation technology within the data center.”

The news comes after it seems Cisco intends to end its partnership with HP, a move that has not thrilled the latter. IBM, which partners with Juniper is also expected to expand its services, requiring more routers and switches. As data centers continue to grow both in number and size, the expectation is that the demand will increase and the competition will continue to heat up.

Source: InformationWeek
Photo: Flickr

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