Cyberia

In the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the Indian government is going to court to basically stop Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) from displaying Google Earth information. To many people, this seems ridiculous. After all, everything Google shows is publicly available information. Why then should it be wrong to consolidate the information for everyone in the world? Well, Google actually goes out of its way to collect data that is not otherwise available, primarily to be cool. That is not cool.

For those people not familiar with Google Earth, it is basically an enhancement to map applications. When you go to Google Maps, you will find a variety of different ways to view the map, such as satellite image, road map, etc. So far, we have nothing wrong there. However what gets intrusive is an extra feature where Google apparently sent people out to take ground level pictures of streets. The end result is actually pretty cool, where you can take a 360 degree look up and down the whole street, at ground level.

Of course, early attempts to do this met with complaints. The Google staff was apparently fascinated with taking pictures of adult bookshops and the people coming out of them (scan down to entry No. 4). Yes, the pictures are that detailed. Google then implemented some privacy policies allowing people to request to have information removed.

The primary issue is not whether Google can take street view pictures and post them, but should they?

With regard to the Mumbai attacks, the terrorists supposedly used Google Earth to get a feel for their targets, which allowed for better planning. I have to admit that I can see that Google Earth provides many more useful applications, which generally outweigh the extremely rare terrorist risk. For example, it is very comforting to know where entrances are to train stations and what they look like when travelling overseas. This comfort factor improves security and leaves people less vulnerable.

However, I do not see the benefit of the same functionality for residential areas. If you want to visit a friend, you don’t need to see their front door, bushes that provide good hiding places, toys to indicate the age of children that live in the house, etc. Many thousands of people are likely to need details of public locations. How many people legitimately need a 360 degree view of your house? Yes, your house is likely on Google Street View.

Again, I stress the term “legitimate need.” I honestly cannot understand why someone would legitimately need to have such detail of my house. If anybody really needs such detail, I would be happy to give it to them. There is the potential for fire or police departments to need the detail. However the fact is that Google doesn’t even accurately point to my house, so if the police or fire departments use it for my supposed safety, I’m in trouble. Either way, I assume that they have their own GPS devices, so they don’t need Google.

For those people who want to say that Google Street View is available through other services, that is very wrong. While the satellite imagery is available from other services that you have to pay for, Google actually took all of the Street View pictures. If you zoom in enough, you can actually see the watermark.

Good luck trying to find out the address or get a good look at Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s home on Google Street View. Google filters out that information, and allegedly blacklisted CNET for publishing it a few years ago. However, he is more than happy to fight for his right to put your house on his system.

If you can tell me why someone legitimately needs that level of detail for a private residence, I would love to hear it. I can tell you that my neighbour isn’t happy to see her child on Google Street View.

Frankly, I support Schimdt’s fight to maintain his privacy. Unfortunately, he and his company have a gross disregard for the privacy and security of the rest of us.

Microsoft Corp. is taking the unusual step of issuing an emergency fix for a security hole in its Internet Explorer software that has exposed millions of users to having their computers taken over by hackers.

The “zero-day” vulnerability, which came to light last week, allows criminals to take over victims’ machines simply by steering them to infected Web sites; users don’t have to download anything for their computers to get infected, which makes the flaw in Internet Explorer’s programming code so dangerous. Internet Explorer is the world’s most widely used Web browser.

Microsoft said it plans to ship a security update, rated “critical,” for the browser on Wednesday. People with the Windows Update feature activated on their computers will get the patch automatically.

Thousands of Web sites already have been compromised by criminals looking to exploit the flaw. The bad guys have loaded malicious code onto those sites that automatically infect visitors’ machines if they’re using Internet Explorer and haven’t employed a complicated series of workarounds that Microsoft has suggested.

Microsoft said it has seen attacks targeting the flaw only in Internet Explorer 7, the most widely used version, but has cautioned that all other current editions of the browser are vulnerable.

Microsoft rarely issues security fixes for its software outside of its regular monthly updates. The company last did it in October, and a year and half before that.

The country’s first ever web browser with numerous new options called ‘Xtravo Explorer’ powered by Internet Explorer runs for information and images faster than the world’s all existing such internet tools, including the Internet Explorer of Microsoft, have been built by a Pakistani boy in his teens, Sheikh Imran Ahmed, 19.

Sheikh Imran is a resident of Karachi who still awaits the government’s recognition for his remarkable achievement in the field of information technology brightening up Pakistan’s image, despite being a developing country, globally. Having the quality to attract the internet addicts with its beta version, soon after the Xtravo’s release on the website www.jawoco.com, immediately made the global websites like www.softpedia.com stir up to lift it and carry out reviews on it.

The global response to this useful and latest web browser is immense, which is on a daily basis downloaded on a large scale tagging good reviews from its users across the world, who reckon it as a user friendly and easy tool. Its users say that although Xtravo Explorer is powered by internet explorer shell engine, it is comparatively better in performance, which offers at present easy options as compared to other such browsers and is faster than the existing ones.

It provides tab browsing, image grabbing and protects the users from unwanted materials and websites flooding the computer screen at a time of internet use- through its strong capability of blocks pop-ups. Thus ensuring a secure browsing environment for users of all ages.

Xtravo has unique features specifically for web designers, such as the document explorer which assists the webmaster to discover the coding of a webpage while browsing on it and works as a scanner to analyse the pieces that make up a website such as images, text, labels and other code snippets.

Moreover, it enables hassle free uploading of webpages by simply typing ftp.yourdomain.com, which leads to a 100 percent secure standard procedure for transferring files (FTP) area. The browser checks users’ subscribed RSS feeds regularly for instant news, downloads and updates which it finds. Besides provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds as well.

Xtravo’s system requirements simply include 10 megabytes (MB) of hard disk drive (HDD), 128 of random access memory (RAM), Net Framework 2 (Compulsory) and Windows Operating System.