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Google vs. China

In 2006, when Google started to offer its search services in China, the company was criticized widely for "selling out" by agreeing to let the Government of China install filters on the system that allowed them to censor content.

In 2006, when Google started to offer its search services in China, the company was criticized widely for "selling out" by agreeing to let the Government of China install filters on the system that allowed them to censor content.

Google was not a fan of the idea, but in the interest of establishing a foothold in the fastest growing Internet market in the world they held their nose and went in anyway - possibly under the delusion that bringing the world to China would help to make that country less restrictive of speech and personal freedoms. Kind of what the International Olympic Committee hoped would happen with the Beijing Olympics.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly where the relationship went sour, but it was probably around March 2009 when China blocked access to YouTube, which is owned by Google. A few months later Chinese officials accused Google of spreading obscene materials through the web, after which point various services like Google.com, Gmail and other Google online services were temporarily blacked out behind the Red Curtain.

Then, last October, a group of Chinese authors accused Google of violating copyrights with its digital library and threatened to sue.

Just over a week ago things came to a head after Google went public to say they had discovered an attack on company servers originating in China. While they did not accuse the Chinese government directly, others have put two and two together and traced the attacks back to a source that has links to the government. Google all but confirmed as much with their announced decision to no longer censor content within China.

As well, Google revealed that the same source had hacked the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Google threatened to pull out of China altogether. It appears that they may actually make good on that threat, despite the fact that their Chinese operations are profitable and that they would be abandoning a market of more than 350 million Internet users in that country.

The U.S. State Department also got involved. Although Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn't mention China by name she recently made a statement that "countries or individuals that engage in cyberattacks should face consequences and international condemnation."

China tried to defuse the situation by downplaying it, while also proclaiming loudly that they didn't care much either way what Google decided to do.

China invited Google to resolve the dispute by legal means within China, while Google said they would approach government with a plan that would eliminate all censorship - something they know won't fly under the current regime.

 

Change your passwords

Got a spare hour or so? Then it may be time to go through all of your e-mail, social networking, banking, shopping and other passwords and change them - not just because authorities discovered over 32 million breached passwords on a computer last year, but also because your passwords are probably not all that secure.

Right now I use Firefox (grudgingly) and LastPass to remember all my different passwords, so there's no point in being sentimental or picking passwords that are easy to remember - especially if a password is extremely obvious.

An analysis of those 32 million passwords by Imperva has discovered that the majority of people are using passwords that any 12 year old could figure out with enough time. The top three most common passwords on the list were 123456, 12345 and 123456789. Number four was "Password." Number five was "iloveyou." Number six was "princess," number seven "rockyou," number eight 1234567, number nine 12345678 and number 10 abc123, as in "ABC...easy as 123."

Other good software solutions to the password conundrum are KeePass and 1Password.

The most important thing is to keep your passwords random - mixed capitals and lower case letters, random numbers - and as long as possible. Sites usually allow between 10 and 12 letters so use them.

Apple tablet a reality

Long rumoured and at last confirmed, Apple presented its new iPad line of tablet computers at a special conference in San Francisco this week. As predicted it resembles a big iPhone, and comes in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB models, as well as models with optional 3G connectivity that will require an account with a cell phone provider.

The surprise was no front-mounted camera for conferencing, but it does include a speaker, microphone, accelerometer for tilt sensing and a compass. It runs most of the iPhone Apps as well as other software on a modified iPhone OS - no OSX Snow Leopard, unfortunately. However, you can run multiple applications at once, including a variety of Apps developed specifically for the tablet - think games, graphic apps, etc. Its potential usefulness as an ebook was obvious out of the box, and Apple has announced an iBook store extension for the iTunes store.

The biggest surprise is the price. Some experts, and yours truly, predicted prices of $1,000 and over - understandable given that purchasing the iPhone without a data plan is over $500. I also expected it to run the OSX operating system and the usual Apple desktop and laptop applications instead of apps.

The 64 GB version without 3G is a very affordable $699, which is a good price for an Internet-ready multimedia tablet that can also be used to boost productivity. With 3G the price tops out at $829.

Also worth noting - HD video, 10-inch screen (almost) and 10 hour battery life.