Amazon’s CloudFront now supports audio and video streaming! »

Amazon CloudFront now supports streaming of media files stored in Amazon S3. You can now use CloudFront to improve access to your static content (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and so forth) as well as your streaming content. You can read more about it here.

Google Wave – What is it? »

You must have heard about Google Wave, but you most likely, you are not using it. Like me, you too are probably clueless as to what it does. If so, here is an introductory article on Google Wave, from TechRadar.com. The last question in that article gives you few more links to Wave. Time to make Unosoft start using it

Updated on 12/19/09:

Here is another article on Mashable regarding, “Google Wave’s Massive Potential for Business Users”.

Bing is now on iPhone! »

Microsoft’s Bing app is now on iPhone. After all, we are all good friends! You can read more about it including some screenshots here.

Microsoft pulls Juku after Plurk complaint »

After the Canadian startup, Plurk claimed 80 percent overlap between its code and that of Juku, another microblog created for MSN China, Redmond responded by pulling the site down and starting an investigation. I think Microsoft is handling the situation well. Read more about this here.

Google URL Shortener »

Google URL Shortener at goo.gl is a service that takes long URLs and squeezes them into fewer characters to make a link that is easier to share, tweet, or email to friends. However, Google URL Shortener is currently available for Google products and not for broader consumer use.

Google Public DNS – OpenDNS »

Google, on 12/3/2009, announced a new DNS resolving service for the public. DNS (Domain Name System) helps in resolving the URL (website address) you type into a IP address. There are other players in this market, like OpenDNS, which is really cool. Google says that because of its infrastructure, its service is faster and more secure.

Google is also in the Advertisement business. So I am not sure what kind of data Google collects whenever we use Google DNS. I am sure it would be tempting for Google to log information related to user usage of the web, like what websites they are visiting etc. But I am hoping that Google will continue to follow its ”Don’t be evil” approach.

You can read more about Google Public DNS here.

Broadband access, a legal right in Finland »

While France declared that internet access is a basic human right, Finland went a step ahead, by making broadband a legal right. Sounds like a cliche,  but internet has made the world flat. What interests me is the way different countries embrace this internet revolution. While some countries are trying to regulate internet access, some are trying to make it more open. In less than a decade, we will see a significant difference in these countries – the rate at which their children acquire knowledge, the efficiency of their businesses, transparency in the government etc.

While it is true that not-so-developed countries, do not have the luxury of making internet access a basic right, they should, however, see the long term benefits in mind and act accordingly. Who knows,  internet might further change the way education system works in the future. Not too far away, children probably won’t have to go to schools for as many years as we did, carrying heavy school bags and doing tons of home work. Hopefully, they will get more quality time and learn things quicker!