Google to Bring Gigabit Internet to Austin, TX; AT&T Hopes to if Offered Same Deal
Residents in the Texas state capital have something to look forward to, as Google has announced its plan to bring Gigabit Internet to Austin by the middle of next year. The company says pricing and choice of options should be similar to what's currently available in Kansas City (and Olathe, KS), which is the first time Google has said anything about expansion. Current options in Kansas City include a $120 a month package for Gigabit Internet, TV-over-IP, and a DVR; a $70/month package for just the Gigabit Internet; and finally a one-time $300 construction cost (with an option to split it up over a year) for 5Mbps Internet at no additional cost for seven years. Google also plans to connect public buildings like hospitals, schools, and community centers to the fiber service at no extra cost.
Not to be outdone, AT&T announced it hopes to bring Gigabit Internet to Austin if it gets the same deal as Google. According to AT&T, it'll do so if "granted the same terms and conditions as Google on issues such as geographic scope of offerings, rights of way, permitting, state licenses and any investment incentives." Both Google and City of Austin officials, including mayor Lee Leffingwell, were quick to say there were no incentives offered and it's simply a way to bring more choices to Austin residents. There were also no incentives offered in Kansas City, although officials there are allowing Google to set up any Central Office equipment in city buildings.
The agreement between Google and the City of Austin hasn't been made public yet, but it should be available on the city website before long. Hopefully other cities and communities get Google Fiber too, otherwise Kansas City, Olathe, and Austin are going to get a lot of new residents.
Source: Google and Ars Technica
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ECS Details Durathon Technology ECS has announced the latest technology that it is adding to its motherboards, known as Durathon. The word is a combination of durable and marathon and signifies that the boards have gone through extensive testing and will be able to operate for long periods of time under strenuous conditions. Durathon qualification is defined through four attributes by ECS. Bi-Directional Splitting Glass Fabric provides three times more humidity protection than general glass fabric. ECS Superior Solid Capacitors will operate for up to 200,000 hours while electrolytic capacitors will only last 32,000 hours. Extreme Temperature Resistance certifies that the board will be able to operate at temperatures 10°C above and below similar boards. Finally, the 1.5K Marathon Test puts the boards through a 1507 point test to check all aspects of the motherboard. Read More ...
Silicon Atoms Caught Dancing Dancing is an integral part of many cultures as the rhythmic motions are given significance, while also just being fun. In science though, dancing is not so common, but researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have caught silicon atoms dancing on a sheet of graphene. Graphene is an atom-thick sheet of carbon that many researchers are looking at because of its many unique and special properties. Among those properties is its two-dimensional structure which some researchers want to exploit by placing other atoms on it to trigger specific reactions. This is what the researchers were working on when they found that some of the atoms in a silicon cluster were jumping between positions. Thankfully the researchers do know why this was happening; the energy of the electron microscope they were using was allowing the atoms to jump. This discovery will likely have some interesting impacts on the potential use of graphene as a host material for other atoms and molecules. As the structure of the other material may spontaneously change, these changes must be considered when designing new electronics, optoelectronics, and catalysis that are such a hybrid material. Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory Read More ...
Closing in on Optical Transistors The development of the electronic transistor is easily among the most important events of the last century as it enabled complex electronics to be made much smaller and require less power to operate than vacuum tubes. Now researchers are working to develop another kind of transistor that will, in some instances, replace electronic ones; optical transistors. Researchers at McGill University have recently made an important discovery that may help make optical transistors a reality. More and more we are seeing fiber optics employed to replace electronic connections, such as in the backbone of the Internet, but while optical connections are faster, they introduce a bottleneck when being received. Without optical transistors the optical signals must be converted to electronic ones that electronic transistors can work with. What the researchers have discovered is that laser pulses can be used to manipulate the quantum mechanical state of quantum dots. Already the researchers have demonstrated basic Boolean logic functionality this way, which is a step towards creating an optical transistor. While this is certainly an important step towards optical transistors, it is only a step and the results are only a proof of concept. The researchers are now working to apply their results to integrated devices and creating more complicated logic gates. Source: McGill University Read More ...
Video Streaming Service Vudu Victim of Burglary; Hard Drives with Customer Info Stolen Digital theft has been all over the news in recent years, but earlier today video streaming service Vudu reported a more conventional theft. On March 24, someone broke into the Vudu offices and took a number of items, including hard drives full of customer information. Yes, you read that right, a physical burglary occured at Vudu and not a website hack. The hard drives contained customer names, email addresses, street addresses, phone numbers, account activity, birth dates, and the last four digits "of some credit card numbers." Vudu doesn't store full credit card information on the hard drives so that is safe. Passwords aren't either, but only if you log in through another site. Stored passwords are encrypted, and while Vudu doesn't believe it can be compromised, it doesn't want to risk it so every customer's password has been reset. As a precautionary measure, Vudu is allowing every affected account to receive the protection benefits of AllClear ID. It runs for one entire year starting today, and includes pretty much every kind of protection possible just in case someone's identity is compromised. Accounts who never set a password with Vudu and used another means to login aren't eligible for AllClear since there's no risk of password hacking. More information can be found at the source below, including how to contact Vudu if you suspect any fraud. Source: Vudu Read More ...
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