Web Technology Journal

Improving Netflix

Avatar — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:23:56 +0000

It is quite sometime now since Netflix, one of the web’s largest movie rental businesses has posted a challenge worth $1 Million. To date, no one has taken the top prize was for a recommendation system that would improve products movement more than the one they already have. Many have been working on the said challenge with only one team who has managed to get the statistics up by a meager 8% which was done by taking all the most stable recommendation systems available, combining it into one humungous recommendation application using the NetFlix data. All that work for so little an increase, whew. The prize is still up for grabs and a better result from an application has yet to be delivered so what do you think? Can you do it?

Web Sites That Count

Avatar — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:23:37 +0000

Many companies got so engrossed in the design and facilities of their web sites that they forgot to put their mouths behind their said web sites. Many of these so-called killer sites utilized the latest technology in their stunning graphics and visual presentations. Many even winning design awards based solely on the way their sites look and work..work? Now that’s where the trouble started, many of the sites which we choose not to mention have all the workings of a movie production with development costing the company millions. The only problem was that the visuals do not count in terms of the functionality and amount of information people were really after. They looked good and sound good but other than that did next to nothing. Many say it would have been better to pick-up the phone and call the company to get the information you needed as a faster method of getting what you want as you need it. This defeats the purpose of the web site which was supposed to provide most of the information they needed whenever they wanted.

Google Expansion

Avatar — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:23:13 +0000

Google, one of the biggest web based searched engines has announced the launch of it’s expanded search capabilities to the global market. Google�s powerful custom search was previously available to the US market and with this announcement makes it the premier search engines of the world. The said Custom Search feature uses the latest technology which allows users to do semantic searches rather than word matching technology of most search engines. Semantics searching can be compared to artificial intelligence in a sense that a phrase that is searched is done so not only based on word matches but also taking into consideration the meaning, context and actual information that is required by the user. This allows less wasted time into searching millions of search results that simply have the searched phrase within them.

Data Encryption – How it Benefits you and me? (Part 3)

Avatar — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:45:19 +0000

With common transactional data, 128 bit encryption is standard for it is estimated that it would take a couple of years for a computer that is fast enough to crack it. Take it a notch up, and you get a time frame goes up to a couple of decades or so till technology can get around to cracking the code easily. In 2002, the longest RC5 encrypted key to be ever broken took five years and that was only 64 bit RC5, imagine 128 and 256? 256 bits of information is roughly equal to the number of atoms in the whole universe which is why encryption at these levels conforms to use on sensitive government information. For you and me, 128 bit would be tough enough to secure our data for a couple of years for within that time frame a newer and better encryption standard may be in place to take up the cause.

Data Encryption – How it Benefits You and Me? (Part 2)

Avatar — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:44:37 +0000

That all happens in a couple of minutes without you ever knowing that there was some very fascinating stuff happening in the background. For credit cards and other major bank transactions, they are now using PCI-DSS; an encryption standard that encrypts the transaction information as it travels thought the network. Anyone who taps into the network can get hold of the information but without the proper key, all you get is garbage, the result, you are protected from credit card fraud and your charges are reflected as they should be. Encryption is meant to protect information for a specified duration that the information stays relevant.

Data Encryption – How it Benefits You and Me? (Part 1)

Avatar — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:41:13 +0000

As you surf the web as part of your job or for more trivial pursuits you send information through the internet at breakneck speeds that a web page that is based on a server in California takes only milliseconds to open. You go to the grocery and pick up the monthly goods using your credit card to pay for your bill, then you go to the clothing shop to buy a piece of clothing again using your credit card. Now pay attention to the credit card use process, the cashier would normally check for authentication markings on the card, one of the most obvious are holograms of the company logo and other marks. They then swipe the card at a data terminal that checks if your credit card number is assigned to the right name in the credit card office’s database for verification and then checks if you have enough credit to charge the current purchases.

The Web is Helping Out Personal Lives

Yalung Brian — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:33:32 +0000

As far as the Internet is concerned, it has now become more of a simple reference for getting information. It has now gone as far as helping us interact, enjoy and even help at times when our health is not as good as it should be.

The Internet is really continuing to evolve. And there is no stopping new technology to set in as it has covered all bases from personal to business needs. With that in mind, do not be surprised if everyone has a gadget in hand. We are relying heavily on technology and hopefully it will always be there to assist us.

Making Sales on the Web

Yalung Brian — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:34:12 +0000

If you are having trouble marketing an selling stuff in the real world, why not try using a different medium such as the web. Online buying and selling has been the new age of doing business and apparently many people are getting hooked to it as well.

Just consider the fact that you don’t have to move from one place to another and just look at the item if it is indeed what you are looking for. If not go to another item. In summary, it is your finger tips that are doing the walking. It doesn’t get any better than that.

New OS, Love it? Nope!

Maverick — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:08:34 +0000

People used to jump onto new stuff like bees to honey but in today’s recession wrecked world, that may not be the case. With Microsoft announcing the release of their new and hopefully improved operating system, people weren’t actually jumping up and down with joy, but with trepidation that they’d have to shell out a couple hundred more bucks just to keep their computers running. As if Microsoft has learned from the failure of Vista, they have again tempted fate by coming up with a new OS to replace Vista. The catch, it doesn’t always work with computers that run XP good so many are gonna stay away from Win 7 for sure.
Even with repetitive announcements that the company is pulling the plug on XP, people didn’t shift to Vista and what’s going to convince people now with Win7? They may have to come up with some policy for those advisory of support ending hasn’t gotten anybody clamoring to get Vista. There is also the issue of having the need to upgrade your hardware, which might add up to a lot of cash considering the software and gadget investments you may have since you got XP.

The Web – When will it End

Maverick — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:09:04 +0000

Never, or till somebody pulls the plug and drives the world into chaos, out of Twitter and their other social affiliations. As of 2007, there was already a record number of 155 billion web sites on record, and the buck didn’t stop there for who knows how many more have been added to this day. The internet is getting better but also older at the same time. Many of the hardware that fails has been replaced but with respect to cabling and other hardware which represents billions of dollars of investment, the same may not be true. Sure, servers have been hot-swapped, replaced, upgraded and more but the cabling which lies under the sea or underground is a bit harder to deal with, requiring a lot of investment.
They’ve been dug up, crushed, severed and many more so they do get a lot of action just to get the existing systems to keep on working. New ones are better but they also cost a lot more and the people who own these undersea cables may not be too keen to replace the old ones for they may have yet to recover their investments. It’s hard to keep the internet working and these companies stay way in the background, the people who actually lay the cables, maintain and fix. Throw into the mix the people who manage the major hubs that connects the network to the rest of the networks and it all amounts to a ton of money, people and resources just to keep it going.