Back in the mid 90’s when the idea of the internet was just beginning to take off at home, there were few options in the way of connecting to the world wide web. There was AOL, Prodigy, and other lesser known ISP’s. One thing was constant in the beginning, and that was what web browser was king. Netscape Navigator was the browser that everybody who was “in the know” was using. Sure AOL had a browser but stacking its’ performance up to Navigator was like comparing the Washington Bullets to the Chicago Bulls (we all know who was king of the NBA in the mid 90’s).

Unfortunately, tomorrow will be the last day of the once great king of browsing, Netscape Navigator. Navigator is now owned by AOL, which announced awhile back of their plan to send their browser off into the sunset. Tom Drapeau of Netscape explains the decision to end the browser, “While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer” .

Looking at the numbers, it’s not a surprise to see why AOL has given up on the browser. Internet Explorer now has a pretty tight grip on the browser market, with 80% of the market. Firefox comes in second place, with around 19.4%. Netscape Navigator, while in the mid-90’s controlled 90% of the browser market, is now at a minscule 0.6%.

So here’s to you Navigator *raises glass*, to bringing the idea of speedy and efficient browsing to the masses. Although you might be gone now, no one will forget the days you once ruled the online world.

R.I.P - Netscape Navigator

Here in the United States we always take things for granted that alot people around the world don’t have. The PC is just one of the many things on that list, but a start-up company, Jooce, is trying to bring it to people who are without them.

Jooce isn’t going to ship actual computers around the globe, but are taking an “outside the box” approach. For many people where computers aren’t easy to come by, there are public cybercafes where people can walk in and get on the internet. The problem is while it’s fun to browse the internet, they have no options in terms of saving files, or storing emails, or instant messaging. This is where Jooce comes in, they have developed a web-based desktop, that can be accessed from remote PCs and will act as a “lite” version of an Operating System. While Jooce won’t provide all the options that Window’s Vista or Linux has; it will provide some of the comforts and options of an OS that alot people have gone without.

Jooce Founder, Stefan Surzyck speaks on the importance of web-based desktops, “It’s a platform that will make it much easier for the world’s cybernomads to manage their digital lives”

There are some faults to the web-based OS, and alot of them will hit home for cybercafe users. Jooce and other web-based OS’s are bandwidth hogs and require alot of muscle to be able to run efficiently. The problem is alot of cybercafe PCs aren’t the top-of-the-line computers therefore struggle in running the web-based desktop.

Even with its’ problems, Jooce is a very ambitious project and any help bringing the digital world to those less fortunate is a good thing. While it might not be as important as food or water, staying informed and in contact with others around the globe is never a bad thing.

Usually when people are fined it’s for speeding, public intoxication, or even the occasional public nudity. These fines generally range from the $100-$500 range. For Microsoft their fine was $1.3 billion, the largest ever given to a person or business.

Microsoft was fined for charging too much for software developers that wanted to make their software Windows compliant. Windows might not have the stranglehold it once had, with Apple making a strong push along with Linux, but it’s still the most popular OS out there. So with this popularity Microsoft is able to profit from software developers using their operating system as a platform. The problem is the EU (European Union), had enough of Microsoft’s Ebenezer Scrooge tactics, and told them to lower their royalties fees. Microsoft complied but not quick enough as the EU slapped them with the fine.

Microsoft’s original royalty fee for patents was 3.87%, they drasitcally reduced the fee to 0.7%. Later Microsoft would eventually scratch the royalty fee in Europe and make flat fee of $14,000 to software developers, and lowered their worldwide rate to 0.4%.

This fine was the first time the EU charged a business with an anti-trust violation. Well atleast Microsoft can say they were the first, just isn’t an impressive feat as being the first home-used PC operating system.

The video game world used to be so simple. It used to be the only news that mattered was game releases, console releases, and finding out just how long you had to wait for those releases. These days it seems like the business side of video games has over taken the actual importance of the games themselves. This is most readily apparent by the recent offer made by EA to purchase Take-Two for $2 billion.

This past year we have seen all kinds of crazy business decisions go down. First, there was the official split between Bungie and Microsoft, which left many XBOX 360 owners wondering about the future of Halo. Next was the purchase of Pandemic Studios made by EA for the sum of $860 million. What is alittle different about the Take-Two offer, is that the information was made public even though the deal didn’t go through.

One evident reason that Take-Two is holding off on EA’s offer is the release of their title Grand Theft Auto 4. Grand Theft Auto has been a smash hit ever since the series’ original release of Grand Theft Auto 3. It’s not a mystery to see that Take-Two is wanting to hold out until the game launches so that the value of the company will increase. Many analysts predict this could come back to hurt them, because EA might not make another offer for awhile.

If this deal were to go through, the sports genre would be effected most. EA and Take-Two have been battling for dominance of the sports genre for quite sometime. Many fans were outraged when EA bought the third party rights to distribute NFL games. Then Take-Two turned around and bought the third party rights for MLB games. The competition is fierce, and makes developers put everything they have into their sports games to sway the consumers. So if EA’s buyout were to go through you could kiss the competition goodbye.

I guess all we can do is hope for the simpler days to return once again.

Tucked away thousands of miles in a remote mountain near the country of Norway, is the world’s largest seed vault. While there aren’t a whole lot of seed vaults to compare it to, the size and scope of what the Norwegian government is trying to accomplish is nothing short of extraordinary.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust was a trust implemented by the United Nations entrusted with the task of maintaining and conserving different variants of crops. This is easily the largest project the trust has undertaken, and with help from the Norwegian government it will be seen through. Basically the vault has been created to protect different crops if let’s say a global disaster were to occur.

The vault has the capability of holding up to 4.5 million seeds. The vault uses a refrigeration system that stays at a steady 0 degrees fahrenheit. With this refridgeration, the vault is capable of keeping the seeds intact upwards of 10,000 years.

The GDC (Game Developer’s Conference) has been going full blast all week. All kinds of speeches have been given, video games have been announced, and game trailers have been watched. One particular speech really stands out above the rest, and what’s funny is that is has very little to do with video games.

The speech was entitled, “The Next 20 Years Of Gaming”. The speaker was Ray Kurzweil, a world renowned inventor and futurist. This man has created ground breaking technologies such as print-to-text machines, and the first CCD flat-bed scanner. If you want to see a full list of his work visit his GDC summary here, let’s just say I could write about ten articles worth or more on his accomplishments.

The speech name “The Next 20 Years Of Gaming”, is a little misleading, as he spoke more on just the future of technology itself. According to Kurzweil’s predictions, you can expect to see computer technology become cheaper to manufacture. Therefore the cost of higher-end computer technology could see a significant decrease. Kurzweil went on to speculate that as soon as twenty years, we could be creating fake blood cell size computers that could perform the same functions as our own blood cells. Not only would these blood cells work, but Kurzweil says they could be made even more efficient than the blood cells our body creates.

Another important technology that Kurzweil touched on was nanotechnology. He goes on to say that this technology could solve the world’s energy crisis within two decades. Nanotechnology would greatly effect solar panels, which at the current state are expensive to make, and are still very inefficient. With nanotechnology, Kurzweil explains that solar panels could one day become more cost efficient to use than oil.

Another interesting trend to look out for is the average life expectancy among humans. He believes that in 15 years we could begin expanding our life expectancy a year for every year that passes. Kurzweil speaks on the advancement of medical technology, “We didn’t stay on the ground…We didn’t stay on the planet. And we have not stayed within the limitations of our biology.”

It’s so refreshing to hear ideas such as this from one of the most respected people in the world of technology. Alot of times you hear random people spouting off about different things that could happen, that it becomes hard to discern what’s serious and what isn’t. It’s safe to say you can take Kurzweil’s words to heart, and the topics he introduced are nothing short of amazing.