Internet Population- Top 15 Countries : ComScore:
According to comscore the Internet population has surpassed One Million. Here is the breakdown by country and region (in unique visitors as of December, 2008; some of the numbers are rounded):
Microsoft Shuts Down ‘Flight Simulator’ Game Studio
As the rest of the tech world scrambles to assess the implications of the recently announced 5,000 layoffs at software giant Microsoft, news has come in that might potentially spell the end of the company’s nearly 30-year-old Flight Simulator series.
Microsoft confirmed Friday that the software giant has shuttered ACES Studios, the developer of the Flight Simulator series of games, whose latest incarnation is Flight Simulator X. The simulation is considered Microsoft’s oldest product, whose original version first shipped in 1982.
However, a Microsoft spokeswoman said that while the studio has been closed, the software company remains committed to the Flight Simulator franchise, without explaining how future products can be launched without a dedicated software development team backing them.
Conficker Hitting Hardest in Asia, Latin America
Computer networks in Asia and Latin America are the most susceptible to a fast-spreading computer worm, which has infected between 6 million and 9 million PCs worldwide, security experts said.
According to Symantec, China and Argentina are the countries that have been hit hardest by the worm, which started spreading about two months ago but is thought to have infected millions over the past few weeks. China accounts for close to 29 percent of the infections tracked by Symantec, and Argentina was second with just over 11 percent, according to Alfred Huger, vice president of Symantec Security Response. “We’re not seeing anywhere near the number of infections in western Europe and North America.”
Xbox 360 Outsells Playstation 3
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console has sold over 28 million units worldwide, 8 million more than the Sony Playstation 3.
According to figures from Microsoft, the Xbox 360 is ahead of the Playstation 3 by one million units in Europe and by 7 million in the US.
However, both consoles are being outsold by the Nintendo Wii, which sold 3 million units in the UK and 10.17 million in the US last year.
Protein for cancer cell death discovered
An autonomous institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore has announced the discovery of a human protein called Bax-beta (Baxß), which can potentially cause the death of cancer cells and lead to new approaches in cancer treatment.
“Our research findings reveal that Baxß protein levels are normally kept at essentially undetectable levels in healthy cells by the protein degradation machine in cells known as proteasomes,” said Dr Victor Yu, who led the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) research team.
Cooliris
Cooliris, formerly known as PicLens, is a web browser plugin that provides interactive full-screen slideshows of online images. The plugin is available for Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. At present, the software is compatible with Google Image Search, Yahoo! Image Search, Ask.com Images, Live Search Images, AOL Image Search, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Fotki, FotoTime, deviantART, SmugMug, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, hi5, Friendster, YouTube (for videos), Gallery, and any web site that implements mediaRSS <link> tags in their HTML pages. The software places a small icon in the corner of an image thumbnail when the mouse moves over it, which launches into a full-screen photo viewer when clicked.
Live Mesh
Live Mesh is a data synchronization system from Microsoft that allows files and folders to be shared and synchronized across multiple devices. Live Mesh consists of a software component that allows synchronization relationships to be created among different devices. Once a folder is set for synchronization, it will be available in all devices, and any changes made to the content of the folder will be reflected across all devices. Live Mesh uses FeedSync to convey the changes made in each device so that the changes can be synchronized. The information about devices and folders participating in a synchronization relationship is not stored locally but at the service-end. Devices in a sync relationship are collectively referred to as a Mesh.
Google Reader
Google Reader is a Web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds online or offline. It was released by Google on October 7, 2005 through Google Labs. Reader graduated from beta status on September 17, 2007.