SpeedPlexer Blog

Britain’s BBC News program about technology called “Click” has an website that keeps you up to date on their stories.  One we thought might be useful in these challenging economic times is their article called “A hi-tech guide to saving money”. 

The article explains that there is lots of free software available online, offering many alternatives to paid programs. It is possible to find free anti-virus (avg.com), collaboration tools (mindmeister.com), project management (nozbe), file-transfer (Filezilla), blogging (wordpress) and media players (videolan).

We at Speedplexer know that Mozilla offers lots of free, open source programs that offer alternatives for internet browsers, e-mail  and the standard office-style programs.

The BBC Click article also says on the subject of software that can save you money, that you can use your high-speed internet connection to speak to people on the other side of the planet rather than via the old-fashioned phone. The technology in question is called Voice Over IP (VoIP) - the “IP” stands for Internet Protocol. Many of the services that use it are free if users call another person on that service. That can save quite a bit of money if you regularly have long conversations with friends or family abroad.

We at Speedplexer have used Skype and have found it to be quite useful, since you can also have video webcam chats with friends and family, and it’s just as free. 

And of course, the internet can always help you save money by giving you the means to research and do cost comparisons on items you need. Knowledge is power, and it’s available to you with internet speed!

It was on Sept 2, 1969 that the internet was born in California. It was just a pair of computers on the ARPAnet—the internet’s military precursor, as Christopher Null tells us in his Yahoo Tech Blog.

“It would be several months before enough computers were added to the network to make it useful and for messages to start flowing among them, but September 2, 1969, is generally considered one of the defining dates in the Internet’s protracted birth,” he explains.

Within a year that network expanded from the West coast to the East, and then e-mail came along in 1971, followed by file transfers in 1973.  By the mid 70’s the network was international with the addition of satellite links to Europe. Wikipedia’s entry for ARPAnet  includes a diagram of what it looked like in 1977, as it grew with child-like internet speed.

By 1983, the ARPAnet  (ARPA standing for Advance Research Projects Agency) shifted to a new architecture for data transmission, and that’s the one that’s still being used today. By 1988, commercial interests were allowed to join in on what had been only for government and education. It was called “Internet Commercial” for a short time before becoming just “The Internet”. 

It may be hard to imagine, but the online world we know today all started with a wire hooking two computers in different locations together. And once scientists found a way to make them do something useful together, that connection 40 years ago changed the world—truly–with internet speed.

We found a few different articles to help you compare the digital readers that are available to help you download your reading material with internet speed,  but without having to sit at a computer to read them. 

The Digital Reader Review compares The Amazon Kindles, Sony Digital Readers PRS-700 and PRS-505, and the Jetbook eBook Reader offered by ECTACO.

They say that the “Amazon Kindle readers are extremely popular because of Whispernet, which allows you to shop the Kindle store directly from your Kindle. You won’t find another eBook reader with the Whispernet feature”.

About the Sony PRS-700 they say “The big deal about this digital reader is an integrated touch screen! It also has a built-in LED reading light for reading in the dark (NOT a backlight, so it won’t cause eye strain).”  They go on to say, “quite possibly the best feature of the 700 and 505 Sony readers is the incredible amount of storage. Using an SDHC expansion card, you can expand up to 32GB. That’s about 28,000 books, my friends!”

And about Ectaco they say “Seeing as Ectaco is the leading electronic language translator company in the world, it should come as no surprise that their eBook reader supports eBooks and audiobooks in over 27 languages! This is definitely the eBook reader for anyone who either isn’t a native English speaker, or wants to learn a new language. Some other great features include a collection of books that come pre-installed on your reader, and the Ectaco company offers a free search service to help you find thousands of free books”.

So find the one that’s right for you and begin the exciting, high-speed internet, digital reading experience!