A Fiber Optic Internet Connection for Your Home

If you use the Internet in your home for your personal entertainment, for your business or both, you need to look at what fiber optics offers you. You may have heard that a cable Internet connection is the fasted possible for your home, or perhaps you enjoy the speed and reliability of a DSL connection from your local phone company, but until you experience fiber optics, you do not know what speed on the Internet is really all about.

What makes fiber optics different?

This technology is different from an Internet connection over the phone lines or cable wires because it does not use traditional copper wire. Copper causes a signal to lose power over distance as the voltage drops across the resistance of the copper. The speeds that can be transmitted across copper are also limited by the signal loss inherent in copper. Fiber optics does not use copper as a conductor of the signal, because the signal is not electrical in nature. Fiber optics uses light as the means of transmitting data. Without the power or signal loss inherent in copper wire, fiber optic technology allows for a greater distance of transmission, and it allows for greater amounts of data without significant signal loss.

If this technology is so good, why is it not available everywhere?

The truth is that someday it will be available everywhere, and the Internet over the phone and cable lines will become obsolete. The problem has been that an entire fiber optic network has to be laid down. At the time of this writing, more than a quarter of the nation has access to this high speed Internet technology.

Should I get a fiber optic connection?

It is completely up to you, but there are a couple of considerations. The moment you get this high speed connection, the limitation on speed while surfing the Internet will be your computer, so you should have a computer system that is compatible with high speed Internet use. This simply means a computer that can view movies and other videos on the Internet, and perhaps play many high speed online games. Also, if you have several people using the same Internet connection in your home, fiber optics is for you. Not only is it high speed, but it can handle a large amount of data, so everyone can use it at once.

The fiber optic network is being rolled out in all 50 states and is being added in new locations every day. A fiber optic internet in Oakland connection can be found through AT&T.

This Handy Tool Lets You Unsend Emails -- But There's A Catch

Most of the time people regret after sending an important mail filled with typo and other errors in a hurry. Sometimes people even type something in their fit of anger which they shouldn’t in sane condition and accidently click on the Reply All instead of ‘Reply’. Just a second after sending the email these errors are noticed by the user and unfortunately there is no ‘unsend’ button in email to retract the last sent mail and save your face.

A new solution to unsend emails

A simple and powerful extension has been developed by the Criptext Mail for the Google Chrome and Apple Safari web browsers. This extension will provide much needed feature of ‘recall’ which will prevent the recipients from reading the messages if you accidently send a regretful mail.

Point to be noted here is that it will not stop the email from sending nor it will unsend the mail itself rather it will prevent reader just from reading the contents. Furthermore users can even add an “expiration timer” to their messages and once the set time limit is reached this extension will automatically recall the mail.

Google Unsend Feature Integrated In The Gmail

Criptext Mail recall option might seem revolutionary and much commendable but Google had also earlier launched a ‘unsend’ feature in its Gmail which received much praise due to time limitations. Google unsend option has to be enabled by the users and it a cancellation period has to be set which ranges from 10 to 30 seconds. It simply once you had sent a mail you will just 10 to 30 seconds to unsend the mail which is not as appealing as the Criptext Mail solution.

The shortcomings of Criptext Mail Extension

Criptext allows the users to recall the email at any point of time once a mail has been sent. But this extension is also have its own share of flaws. One such thing is that Criptext extension appends a large signature advertising service to any mail sent by the user. It appears upfront and above the mail body which says :”Hi, I’ve sent you this email using Criptext for Gmail and Outlook”.

It is very likely that most of the recipients will overlook the mail as a promotional mail forwarded by you. At first it will hard for the recipient to notice that you are using third party service to send mails. A pro version of Criptext extension will soon be available for the users which offer to get rid of the long drawn signature.

How does Criptext Mail extension works? 

Criptext had found unique and innovative way of converting messages into images and later on they are encrypted. This prevents the messages from being scanned by bots as they appear to be animated elements. Furthermore the recalling option doesn’t remove the mail from the recipient’s inbox but the image version of the message gets deleted. In this manner recipients will be unable to read any of the content present in the mail but they will wonder what had you sent.

Motorola Launches New Moto X Range, Next Generation Moto G

Motorola is all set to give competition to the rivals who had aggressively introduced new mid budget phones at affordable price points. Motorola has launched its successful flagship Moto G and Moto X Smartphone to compete both at the low and high end of the highly competitive Smartphone market. Motorola has introduced two new versions of its high end Moto X and a new version of Moto G Smartphone. With this it is taking head on against the popular products from rival Chinese manufactures and esteemed Samsung and Apple brands.

The new Moto G brings more features at low price point

The earlier version of Moto G launched in 2013 showed how a great Smartphone experience can be provided at a low price point. But this time around Motorola had even better by bring enhanced specifications at affordable range without comprising on the user experience. Moto G offer irresistible user experience coupled with amazing specifications, which a consumer can think about.

Moto G comes in 2GB RAM and 16GB Internal storage as well as 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage variants. Moto G new version is dust and water resistant, supports dual Sim cards and both can be used to access 4G connectivity. It comes up with a large 5-inch HD IPS display screen including Corning Gorilla Glass protection. The latest stock Android Lollipop will found on this device. This device is motorized by 1.4GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor. The cameras are also upgraded to 13 Megapixel on the back with dual flash and 5 megapixel snapper at the front.

Moto X Style Steps up the high end Smartphone user experience

Moto X Style is an enhanced and beautiful version of the flagship Smartphone which is coupled with a highly powerful hardware under the hood. It features a QHD screen display of 5.7 inches coupled with latest powerful Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 808 Hexa core processor and Android 5.0 OS. Motorola has clocked this premium processor at 1.8 GHZ to provide an exceptional performance in handling multi tasking. Moto Styles offers 3GB of RAM and comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB storage variants along with external storage expansion support via MicroSD card.

Motorola has laced the Moto X Style with a 21 megapixel front camera having dual CCT flash with capability of shooting videos at 4K resolution. For selfie Moto X have 5 megapixel snapper. Moto X Style has a marathon battery of 3000mAh, which can provide 30 hours of standby in a single charge. On connectivity front, it has 4G LTE, 3G, WiFi and other options.

Moto X Play: a commendable upgrade over last year’s model 

Moto X Play's features a 5.5-inch display of FHD 1080p screen and comes loaded with a 3630mAh battery. Moto X comes with latest Android Lollipop 5.1 coupled with 2GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage. A similar camera of 21-mega pixel and 5 megapixel selfie cameras will be found on the device.

Motorola flagships Moto X Smartphone are serious contenders to take on the likes of premium devices launched by the Apple and Samsung in the recent past.

Terrain-based virtual camera tilting, and applications thereof

Terrain-Based Virtual Camera Tilting & Applications

Google has recently been awarded U.S. Patent for Terrain based virtual camera tilting and application. Systems prevailing in navigating via a three dimensional environment tends to display three dimensional data which comprises of a virtual camera defining what kind of three dimension data to display.

The virtual camera has a viewpoint based on its orientation as well as position and by changing the viewpoint of the virtual camera one can navigate through the three dimensional setting. Environmental information system could be one form of system which utilises a virtual camera in navigating through a three dimensional setting. It is a system for the purpose of storing, recovering and manipulating and display spherical three dimensional model of the Earth.

The three dimensional model could comprises of a satellite descriptions surface which could be mapped to terrain like canyons, valleys and mountains. In the terrestrial information system, the virtual camera tends to view the spherical three dimensional of the Earth’s model from various perspectives and the internal viewpoint of the model of the Earth tends to portray the satellite images though the terrain could be difficult to view. While on the other hand, ground level viewpoint of the model may portray the terrain in detail.

Method of Swooping Between Perspectives

To changeover from aerial viewpoint to a ground level perspective, U.S. Patent Application by Varadhan et all explains a method of example of swooping between perspectives, describing reduction of distance between the virtual camera as well as the target in determining a tilt value based on the condensed distance.

The virtual camera is then positioned as per the tilt value as well as the condensed distance. A method is available for swoop navigation and in cases where the terrain seems to be flat; a viewpoint which is parallel for ground could not be much interesting to a user than in instances where the terrain differs in altitude. On applying single swoop trajectory to a complete three dimensional environment which could comprise the flat as well as the rugged terrain, could lead to incidents where the swoop trajectory would not provide an optimal user experience.

Embodiment to Change Swoop Trajectory

To manage with the variation in terrain, embodiments tend to change the swoop trajectory based on the terrain inside the view of the virtual camera. A virtual camera could be positioned at an angle comparative to the upward normal vector from the target, to swoop into a target, the angle of which may be stated as a tilt angle.
As per the embodiments, the tilt angle could rise more quickly in areas of high terrain variance for instance, mountains or cities with high buildings, than in areas with less variance in terrain such as flat plains. In order to determine the level of terrain variance in an area, embodiments could weight terrain data with higher detail more deeply than terrain data with less detail.

Moreover, the tilt angle could also be varied depending on the amount of terrain variance even if the camera is otherwise static and/or the tilt angle may be varied at the time of another manoeuver rather than a swoop.

How To Set Up Your Own Raspberry Pi Powered VPN

Virtual Private Network – Secure Internet Connection

Websites often tend to track where a user has come from and watch where they head off next.A Virtual Private Network tends to secure your internet connection from prying eyes and is dangerous for several users, especially those travelling or intends to use unsecured wireless network.

A VPN is a network of computers which are connected securely irrespective of the different locations and all utilising different connection methods. The advantage to a VPN is that allcomputers on one are securely connected to one another and their traffic encrypted, keeping it away from prying eyes.

Another benefit to a VPN is that all the computers on one are efficiently on the same network which means that they tend to communicate as though they are next to one another and plugged in to the same router. With the help of Raspberry Pi project, one could control the VPN. In other words, the Virtual private network or VPN helps in browsing the internet more secretly by routing the traffic through a server which is not the point of origin.

Internet Browsing Encrypted & Secure

There are several companies offering services with various degrees of security, cost and if interested in getting technical with some basic coding and a Raspberry Pi computer which comes at a cost of £30, one could build their very own VPN server at home.

A VPN extends one private network into a public places and if one is using Starbuck’s Wi-Fi connection; the internet browsing is encrypted and secure. There are several ways of setting up a VPN with paid services as well as free services though each solution are determined by the way the VPN provider tends to charge and operate as well as the types of VPN options they provide.

The cheapest and the easiest option in keeping the data secureis to refrain from public Wi-Fi. BBC has published a guide in creating your own personal virtual private network in order to browse the Web from a mobile device without the prying eyes of anyone intending to sell your data. They have offered step by step detailed instructions to set up a DIY VPN server with Raspberry Pi.

Download Open VPN Connect for iOS/Android

One would need a Raspberry Pi or Pi 2, an 8GB MicroSD card, a SD card reader a 5v mini USB power supply like a smartphone charger, an HDMI monitor, together with a USB keyboard, an Ethernet cable accompanied with good amount of free time, for the project. Remaining of the instructions would involve various other software which needs to be downloaded and installed, steps in setting up security passwords together with generating keys, configuring networks as well as keys with more coding related steps.

At the end of the project, the user can download Open VPN Connect for iOS or Android on the smartphone or the tablet which enables to input the new privacy configuration in the mobile device. The most important part would be in setting aside the time which would be essential in getting through all the installation as well as security setup, the process of which is quite a length one. Nonetheless, for the sake of more privacy on the Internet, it is worth the extra efforts put in.