Facebook is asking you to act now and save the "free" Internet; but so are activists!

December 17, 2015

Dec 17: Many of us woke up today to notifications on our Facebook timeline where our friends showed their support for the free internet. In India, free means a lot.

fbSo if Facebook and activists both expect you to act to save the free Internet, who do you trust? Although the world also has two distinct meanings for the word free, in India both meanings matter a lot. In 1947, we got to know one side of the word free! Free as in freedom. The open source movement thrives on this idea of freedom, which emphasises on the liberty to make a choice. Even if it may be convoluted, or take an extra while to accomplish a simple task; it is, nonetheless, a privilege to be able to decide for oneself.

On a similar front, free has another meaning. Where free comes with no charge. It"s the best thing to happen during the year end. Obviously nothing is every given for free! It"s usually a bundle. For instance, you buy a shirt and get another free. What it usually comes down to is you get 2 shirts for the price of one. Or one shirt at half the price. In effect, you paid for one shirt, but end up getting two.

Clearly free is the most exciting word we can hear of. It excites us, and we look forward to free around any deal we may get.

So essentially, what is it with Faceb

ook that it has managed to put off so many people and get them to vociferously oppose its Free Basic package.

It"s interesting how the debate to net neutrality began with activists setting up a website (savetheinternet.in). And now Facebook is taking the same route, but countering the Net Neutrality camp by influencing its user base to send emails to Trai that renders their support for Free Basics in India.

The user clicking on the Send Email button is showing support for Digital Equality, which is a good term for free as in free of charge. But that free, hinders the basic aspect of freedom, of choice, that many more want to defend with all might!

The email that is drafted by Facebook on your behalf reads:

To the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, I support digital equality for India. Free Basics provides free access to essential Internet services, such as communication, education, healthcare, employment, farming information and more. It helps those who can"t afford to pay for data, or who need a little help with getting started online. And it"s open to all people, developers and mobile networks. With 1 billion Indian people not yet connected, shutting down Free Basics would hurt our country"s most vulnerable people. I support Free Basics and digital equality for India. Thank you.

Over the series of meetings that Mark Zuckerberg has had with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and his subsequent interest in India, there has been some key messages that have stood out. And that is the need to get more Indians on the Internet. In reality, Facebook. We"ve seen Sundar Pichai also take an active interest to push for Wi-Fi, which is good. But we believe, there"s much more that needs to be done!

You"d probably agree, there"s a strong business case to focus on India. Over the years, our sheer population has moved from being a liability to being our greatest asset. For we"ve created a huge internet hungry audience. The best thing for companies such as Google and Facebook.

However, there"s a key difference in the approach taken by Google and Facebook. While Google is enabling free internet through Wi-Fi networks, Facebook is riding on a fine line, between what is noble and what isn"t. Free internet would eventually come at a price. And that price is freedom itself. Strong activists who have been fighting for net neutrality, or the objective independence of data packets we access online have vehemently opposed Facebook"s Free Basics plan. Some of these individuals include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the modern web.

In addition, Google is also working towards speeding up the mobile internet experience by delivering lighter, leaner web pages, which is quite similar to Opera Turbo that enabled closer delivery of web content, through more optimised and compressed data packets.

Update: In response to this story, Facebook has issued an official statement, attributed to its spokesperson: “Hundreds of millions of people in India use the Internet every day and understand the benefits it can bring. This campaign gives people the opportunity to support digital equality in India. It lets people speak in support of the one billion people in India who remain unconnected, and lets them participate in the public debate that is being held by The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on differential pricing for data services. And it gives them the opportunity to support Free Basics, which is proven to bring more people online and accelerate full internet adoption.”

Effectively, you are expected to take a stand. Which side of free are you on? If you"re undecided, then the basic rule may help – there"s nothing like a free beer!

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Agencies
April 4,2020

Kozhikode, Apr 4: In a bid to maintain the lockdown amid COVID-19 outbreak, Police in Kozhikode is monitoring the situation using drone cameras and making sure that people are not breaking the law.

The police have so far arrested 41 persons who were out on a morning walk on Saturday during the lockdown in the backdrop of coronavirus outbreak.

The SHO of Town South Police Station informed that the accused were later released on bail.
At least 295 cases have been reported in the state so far.

Talking about COVID-19 testing, State Health Minister KK Shailaja told media: "Nine labs are conducting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in Kerala. We've received 2000 rapid test kits and will start rapid tests from tomorrow. If a person tests positive in rapid test, we need to confirm it with PCR test."

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in India climbed to 3072 on Saturday, according to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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Agencies
March 8,2020

Consumer watchdog Which? has claimed that more than one billion Android phones and tablets are vulnerable to hackers as they no longer supported by security updates.

According to the research report, the most at-risk phones are any that run Android 4 or older and those smartphones running Android 7.0 which can not be updated are also at risk.

Based on data from Google analysed by Which?, two in five android device users around the world are no longer receiving the important updates. Currently, those devices are unlikely to have issues, but the lack of security leaves them open to attack.

"It is very concerning that expensive Android devices have such a short shelf life before they lose security support, leaving millions of users at risk of serious consequences if they fall victim to hackers," Kate Bevan editor Which? said in a statement.

"Google and phone manufacturers need to be upfront about security updates with clear information about how long they will last and what customers should do when they run out. The government must also push ahead with planned legislation to ensure manufacturers are far more transparent about security updates for smart devices and their impact on consumers," Kate added.

Android phone released around 2012 or earlier, including popular models like the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Sony Xperia S, are particularly at risk to hackers.

Which? has made suggestions to Android users on what to consider if they have an older phone that may be at risk.

Any Android device which is more than two years old, check whether it can be updated to a newer version of the operating system. If it is on an earlier version than Android 7.0 Nougat, try to update via Settings> System>Advanced System update.

In case a user is not able tto update the phone, the device could be at risk of being hacked if it is running a version of Android 4 or lower.

A user also need to be careful about downloading apps outside the Google Play store and should also install a mobile anti-virus via an app.

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Agencies
February 6,2020

Washington D.C., Feb 6: An international team of astronomers has found an unusual monster galaxy that existed about 12 billion years ago when the universe was only 1.8 billion years old.

The team of astronomers was led by scientists at the University of California, Riverside.

Dubbed XMM-2599, the galaxy formed stars at a high rate and then died. Why it suddenly stopped forming stars is unclear.

"Even before the universe was 2 billion years old, XMM-2599 had already formed a mass of more than 300 billion suns, making it an ultra massive galaxy," said Benjamin Forrest, a postdoctoral researcher in the UC Riverside Department of Physics and Astronomy and the study's lead author.

"More remarkably, we show that XMM-2599 formed most of its stars in a huge frenzy when the universe was less than 1 billion years old and then became inactive by the time the universe was only 1.8 billion years old," Forrest added.

The team used spectroscopic observations from the W. M. Keck Observatory's powerful Multi-Object Spectrograph for Infrared Exploration or MOSFIRE, to make detailed measurements of XMM-2599 and precisely quantify its distance.

The study results appear in the Astrophysical Journal.

"In this epoch, very few galaxies have stopped forming stars, and none are as massive as XMM-2599," said Gillian Wilson, a professor of physics and astronomy at UCR in whose lab Forrest works.

"The mere existence of ultramassive galaxies like XMM-2599 proves quite a challenge to numerical models. Even though such massive galaxies are incredibly rare at this epoch, the models do predict them."

"The predicted galaxies, however, are expected to be actively forming stars. What makes XMM-2599 so interesting, unusual, and surprising is that it is no longer forming stars, perhaps because it stopped getting fuel or its black hole began to turn on. Our results call for changes in how models turn off star formation in early galaxies," the professor stated.

The research team found XMM-2599 formed more than 1,000 solar masses a year in stars at its peak of activity -- an extremely high rate of star formation. In contrast, the Milky Way forms about one new star a year.

"XMM-2599 may be a descendant of a population of highly star-forming dusty galaxies in the very early universe that new infrared telescopes have recently discovered," said Danilo Marchesini, an associate professor of astronomy at Tufts University and a co-author on the study.

"We have caught XMM-2599 in its inactive phase," Wilson said, who led the W. M. Keck Observatory data acquisition
Co-author Michael Cooper, a professor of astronomy at UC Irvine, said this outcome is a strong possibility.

"Perhaps during the following 11.7 billion years of cosmic history, XMM-2599 will become the central member of one of the brightest and most massive clusters of galaxies in the local universe," he said.

"Alternatively, it could continue to exist in isolation. Or we could have a scenario that lies between these two outcomes," he stated.

The study was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA.

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