Since the page on Afghanistan was created on January 16, 2001, the first article in history, more than 58 million articles have been created. And their records are staggering.
It sounds like the typical concept advertised in American magazines in the 1950s: In the future, everyone will have access to all universal knowledge on one screen! And yet Wikipedia exists. It is a miracle, in a way, and there is much to thank the collectivist Internet of the beginning of the century, because now we would not be able to do something similar (maintain it, yes, but create it from scratch?). Since the Afghanistan page was created on January 16, 2001, the first article in history, more than 58 million articles have been created. And their records are staggering.
A free program for Windows' by Wikipedia Foundation
Wiki wiki scratch
You may have ever wondered what is the shortest article in all of Wikipedia (being considered a Good Article by the web): it is about Ydalir, a place that appears in some Norse poems and that nowadays, supposedly, is a town in Scotland. The shortest unrevised article, currently, is the one by Maria Amor Torres, which reads “She is a woman born in the Philippines”.
But what about its counterpart, which articles are longer than a day without bread? Well, you may be surprised because the subject is not what you would call fun, but… a list ofglagolitic manuscripts, from the 10th to the 21st century. Out of lists we have to go to, of course, soccer. More specifically, the page dedicated to Dynamo Berlin. It may not be the most popular team in the world, but it is certainly the most dedicated. Try to read it: you won’t finish.
For its part, the longest biographical page, and without insults in between, is that of Boris Johnson (the way things are: there is a lot to cover in the time he was governing the United Kingdom). And the most visited article? Unsurprisingly, Wikipedia’s own, followed by Facebook and YouTube. In terms of people, Donald Trump and Elizabeth II, although the record is much sadder: on the day of his death, almost ten million people visited Chadwick Boseman’s profile.
A curiosity: the article with the longest name? It is a joke (but reality-based) scientific article entitled “Cneoridium dumosum (nuttall) collected by Hooker F. on March 26, 1960 at an elevation of about 1450 meters at Cerro Quemazon, 15 miles south of Bahia de Los Angeles, Baja California Mexico, Apparently for an extension to the southeast of about 140 miles.” Who said being a Wikipedia editor was easy?
Submarine cables are the workhorses of global commerce and communications, carrying more than 99% of the traffic…
When you call your friend who is studying in the United States and can have a real-time, high-definition video call, it’s all possible thanks to a network of submarine cables that traverse the cold ocean floor.
Indeed, the connection between different continents is made possible by large cables transmitting images and sounds at the speed of light through strands of fiberglass as thin as a hair but thousands of kilometers long.
These cables, as thick as a garden hose, are wonders of high technology. The fastest one, the transatlantic cable called Amitié and funded by Meta, Microsoft, and others, can transport 400 terabits of data per second.
That’s 400,000 times faster than the broadband in your home, if you’re lucky enough to have a gigabit service not available to everyone.
A technique that is more than 150 years old
And yet, submarine cables can also be low-tech, coated in tar, and laid by ships using a process that is essentially the same as the one used in the 1850s to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable.
Modern cables can transmit up to 250 terabits per second of data, but their technology dates back to the 19th century when scientists and engineers like Werner Siemens discovered how to lay telegraph cables under rivers, the English Channel, and the Mediterranean Sea.
Many of the early cables failed, in part because the weight of a cable laid on the ocean floor would cause it to snap in two. The first successful transatlantic cable project operated for only three months in 1858 before failing and could send little more than one word per minute.
While satellite links are becoming increasingly important with systems in orbit like SpaceX’s Starlink, submarine cables remain the workhorses of global trade and communications, carrying over 99% of the traffic between continents.
TeleGeography, an analysis company that tracks the industry, has identified 552 existing submarine cables, and more are being planned as the internet expands across the globe, permeating every corner of our lives.
You probably know that tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google run the brains of the internet. They are referred to as “hyperscalers” because they operate hundreds of data centers filled with millions of servers. However, you may not be aware that they are increasingly managing the nervous system of the internet as well.
According to consulting firm McKinsey, two-thirds of the internet traffic comes from hyperscalers. The demand for data from hyperscaler submarine cables is growing at a rate of 45% to 60% each year.
The data demand from hyperscalers is not solely due to their own content needs, such as Instagram photos and YouTube videos that are viewed worldwide.
These companies often operate cloud computing businesses like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, services used by millions of businesses worldwide.
The €2 billion high-voltage subsea/land cable project connecting the UK and Denmark has been finalized.
The subsea/land electric cable will soon enable the UK and Denmark to share renewable energy to power up to 1.4 million UK homes.
— Karbon Offsets #TogetherForOurPlanet (@karbonoffsets) July 18, 2023
The early submarine cables covered major communication routes, such as the one between London and New York. These routes remain crucial, but new ones are taking the bandwidth away from the well-trodden paths: the west coast of Greenland, the volcanic island of Saint Helena off the west coast of Africa, the southern tip of Chile, the Pacific island nations, and more remote locations.
This is all part of a gradual transformation of submarine communications. While cables were once the exception, linking only a few high-priority urban centers, they are now becoming a mesh that spans the entire globe.
In other words, submarine cables are starting to resemble the rest of the internet, despite their high costs and exotic technology.
Why submarine cables are spreading
The economic advantages are considerable. According to McKinsey, submarine cable connections result in faster internet speeds, lower prices, a global increase in employment by 3% to 4%, and a boost in economic activity by 5% to 7%.
As the demand for traffic from hyperscalers increased, traditional telecommunications companies that used to install submarine cables were withdrawing from the market.
Hyperscalers initially invested in external projects, which was natural as submarine cables are typically operated by consortia of multiple allies. However, more and more hyperscalers are now building their own projects.
These cables are not cheap: According to Mauldin, the installation of a transatlantic cable costs between $250 million and $300 million.
The cables are crucial. If one Azure region fails, data centers in another region take over to ensure that customer data and services continue to function.
In the United States and Europe, terrestrial cables bear most of the load, but in Southeast Asia, submarine cables predominate. That’s why the internet wouldn’t be what it is today without submarine cables.
It is normal that you want to bring your community together, and the official page of Pokémon has created a new way to do it: no social networks, no chats. A return to the old forums.
What happens when you take a clearly childish subject and put it through the Internet blender? Well, clearly, it becomes an uncontrollable monster. That’s what has happened to Pokémon after trying to get a loyal community to talk about the best games, strategies to win on Switch or the news of ‘Pokémon Go‘: instead, they have found themselves with horny people and first-class trolls. It couldn’t have been otherwise.
It’s normal to want to bring your community together, and the official Pokémon website has created a new way to do it: no social networks, no chats. A return to the old forums, which gave us so much joy (unless you were a moderator, in which case the visits to the psychologist will still last). The problem is that, when you think your fans love you so much that they will self-moderate, you get the opposite of what you wanted: a flood of topics hotter than Spain in August.
“Which girl would you tickle torment?” (note: “Tickle torment” is not a Pokémon ability); “Which Pokémon is hotter?”; “I’m incredibly attracted to Gardevoir“… To no one’s surprise, those who played Pokémon 25 years ago now have other kinds of more, shall we say, earthly interests. Obviously, these posts have been immediately removed from the forums (well, after a while where people have been able to comment on their sexual opinions about Gardevoir), but others enter a gray area.
“Penny is trans, by the way,” commented one user referring to the ‘Scarlet/Purple Pokémon’ character in a post that was also deleted by moderators. And it’s one thing to remove clearly malicious discussions and another to ban discussion of a character’s sexual identity. Put another way: it’s not the same thing to talk about thePokémon you want to bring in as it is to talk about a character’s gender.
The thing, to Game Freak’s despair, has not stopped, although the playfulness has taken a back seat to the most blatant trolling: “Giovanni did nothing wrong”; “Does anyone else want Jynx to have succulent feet in games?”; “Would you have a relationship with a Ditto? “; “Which Pokémon would be the best at destroying evidence of several unconnected crimes?“… As of today the forum seems quiet, but it’s only because the moderators are learning the worst possible way that one can’t mess with the Internet: just try to navigate its tempestuous waters as best you can without sinking.
Better a dying Twitter asking for death than a social network in which your comments echo.
Ever since Elon Musk took the helm of Twitter, it’s been running with a rattle and a mouse spinning in a wheel. In other words, it’s still standing purely by chance (when it’s still standing). If you’re also experiencing the downfall of Twitter day by day, 600 tweets to 600 tweets, and you’re wondering where the best place is to escape and create a new virtual civilization, we bring you the four best options. However, if you want a sneak peek of the moral of the story: it’s better to have a dying Twitter begging for death than a social network where your comments echo.
Surely you have an account on Mastodon, the decentralized Twitter that… is difficult to learn how to use. Those who have already built a new cyber life there say that it’s easier to block people you don’t want to see, that once you get the hang of it, it becomes pure intuition, and that you can write extremely long posts without having to pay anyone (and probably never having to do so). Among all the alternatives, Mastodon is the most popular… although, let’s be honest, it only fills up when Twitter is struggling. It’s like Telegram when WhatsApp breaks down… or the bird’s own network when Instagram doesn’t work.
BlueSky
Jack Dorsey took Elon Musk’s money and went off to create his own platform, BlueSky, which for now can only be accessed by invitation (they give one every fifteen days), and it’s… Twitter in a more primitive state. Exactly. Well, with an owner who isn’t an arrogant millionaire parodied in a thousand movies like ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,’ but otherwise, all the secrecy wasn’t worth it. By the time it comes to light, it will be too late (probably), and we’ll already be onto other things.
Truth Social
When Donald Trump was banned from Twitter, the former US president decided to establish his own social network centered around his persona. It’s essentially a version of Mastodon tailored for Trump’s fans, so you already know what to expect there: QAnon, fake news, conspiracies, and lies. If that’s your cup of tea, go ahead. If not, it’s better to pretend it doesn’t exist.
Dreaming of the return of Tuenti
There was a time when everything was simpler, damn it. In Tuenti, there were no millionaire gentlemen, the Nazis were silent, and everything seemed easier (because it WAS easier, among other things). What’s the alternative if you don’t like making videos? Facebook is the most outdated social network, and the rest are still in their infancy.
Who knows if Threads, the app that Instagram is creating to copy Twitter (have we forgotten that Stories are a copy of Snapchat and Reels of TikTok?), will find the key… even if we go from an arrogant millionaire to another arrogant millionaire. It’s like jumping from the boiling pot into the virtual frying pan. Internet has been good while it lasted: Can it just end already?
In view of the bad press it has been receiving lately, Shein invited six influencers to its offices to whitewash its image. Spoiler alert: it didn’t go well.
€10 billion. That’s the amount that Chris Xu, one of those billionaires who have managed to fly under the radar, supposedly handles. He accumulates vast sums of money, obviously earned at the expense of the sweat of others. Just to give you some context, he is the CEO of Shein, the fast-fashion company made in China, whose methods are, let’s say, shady. Perhaps that’s why, considering the recent bad press they have been receiving, Shein invited six influencers to their offices to clean up their image. Spoiler: it didn’t go well.
It was a Channel 4 documentary that sparked the controversy. ‘Inside the Shein Machine’ revealed the reality of one of the Chinese factories, which is exactly as you can imagine: human rights violations (500 garments in 18 hours), unsanitary conditions (they wash their hair during breaks because they even work on Sundays), and so on. A marketing disaster for the brand.
Of course, the company acted offended and invited Dani Carbonari, Marina Saavedra, Aujené, Fernanda Stephany Campuzano, Kenya Freeman, and Destene Sudduth, influencers with varying degrees of prestige, to their factory in Guangzhou. It’s not surprising: Shein has always relied on Instagram and TikTok users by sending them free clothing (the famous “hauls”) in exchange for promotion. So, instead of inviting the TV channel itself or reputable journalists, they did what they usually do and reached out to people who live on the internet.
Get a glimpse of the process of how your purchases are packaged directly from our facility and delivered to your doorstep. Watch as our partners discover the cutting-edge tech that streamlines our operations and receive a hands-on experience in packaging. Stay tuned to the #SHEIN101 series to learn more of what goes on behind the scenes at #SHEIN#SHEINOnTheRoad
But the image makeover went terribly wrong, appearing as a staged performance for the cameras, completely different from what was shown on Channel 4. The influencers didn’t hesitate and uploaded very positive TikTok videos, accusing others of “misinformation” surrounding Shein, showcasing how clean their innovation center was or enjoying their time in China. However, their followers saw something that they didn’t notice: it wasn’t a real factory.
In fact, it was just a model they used for the rest of the production. There were no fire extinguishers or emergency exits, and half of the machines were idle. An expert in clothing manufacturers in China, Susan Bailey, detailed in a Twitter thread everything that was wrong with those pure propaganda videos. And there were quite a few issues, starting with the complete absence of individually cut garments, as if it were Louis Vuitton, instead of a place where tens of thousands of dresses are churned out every day at ten euros each.
Certainly, Shein will continue to operate smoothly due to the precariousness of society, but this whitewashing attempt has stirred up a lot of discussion. It’s particularly noteworthy because what people think you’re hiding is always worse than what you’re actually hiding. I’m sure more than a few individuals will think twice before purchasing a beach dress or shirt from there, for whatever reason it may be. Perhaps it’s about supporting human rights, you never know.
There is already talk that WiFi 7 could appear in iPhones next year, which would be the first step towards consumer technology adopting this WiFi standard.
El próximo iPhone 15 de Apple contará con un chip Ultra Wideband (U2) mejorado para optimizar la integración con los nuevos Vision Pro de la compañía, Ming-Chi Kuo. ?
Ademas de que también menciona que el próximo iPhone 16 contara con Wifi 7.? ¿Qué les parece? pic.twitter.com/XboBCu6A4I
The WiFi standard is maintained by the WiFi Alliance, and the upcoming iteration will be WiFi 7 (802.11be). This new wireless connectivity standard offers several advantages for compatible devices, primarily higher peak data transmission speeds and significantly lower latency.
While WiFi 6 focused on supporting a large number of devices, WiFi 7 aims to increase speed and efficiency in utilizing those devices.
The additional improvements of WiFi 7 will support reduced latency and fluctuations for time-sensitive network applications, including AR/VR, 4K and 8K video streaming, automotive, cloud computing, gaming, video applications, as well as industrial and mission-critical applications.
Similar to previous WiFi generations, WiFi 7 will be backward compatible and coexist with legacy devices in the 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz spectrum bands.
What is the maximum data rate?
The alliance promises maximum data speeds of 46 Gbps for WiFi 7, which is nearly four times faster than WiFi 6 (802.11ax) and 6E, and five times faster than WiFi 5 (802.11ac).
WiFi 7 is also known as IEEE 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (EHT). It operates in the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz frequency bands.
What is the final result of WiFi 7?
In short, WiFi 7 will be able to handle the networking needs of dozens of devices. By doing so, it will dynamically provide the best wireless signal to each of those devices. If channels become congested, the data flow of the devices will be shifted to another channel.
The idea is that the standard can choose the best available frequencies and channels for any use at any given time, and also prioritize specific uses if desired.
Today is May 17, 2023 and World Internet Day is celebrated. We explain why this day is celebrated and when it became official.
Let’s be honest and say that the year is full of days that sound like a joke. Yesterday, for example, was International Day of Light. What does that mean? You’ll have to find out by entering our article.
Fortunately, today, May 17, is much more important and it makes sense that it exists. Because without the Internet we would not be here and humanity would not have advanced in the last 30 years at the dizzying pace at which it has.
The Internet by itself means nothing. But with our effort and hunger for sharing and acquiring new knowledge, we humans have made it the most powerful tool in history.
World Internet Day
World Internet Day is celebrated every year on May 17. The history of this day is very curious, since at first it was designated a completely different month and day.
World Internet Day was first celebrated on October 29, 2005. Shortly afterwards, at the World Summit on the Information Society held in Tunis in November 2005, it was decided to propose to the UN the designation of May 17 as World Information Society Day.
As a result, Spanish-speaking countries (Spain, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, etc.) now celebrate Internet Day on May 17, while Anglo-Saxon countries continue to celebrate it on October 29.
This is not new, it’s like Mother’s Day, they celebrate it on May 14 while we celebrate it on the first Sunday of May, whichever day it falls. Hispanic and Anglo-Saxon things.
— #diadeinternet, 17 de mayo Día Mundial de Internet (@diadeinternet) May 14, 2023
What is celebrated on May 17
Today is a day to celebrate how important the Internet is in our current knowledge society, to remember that we must take care of the network and that we must always be very careful when we surf.
A safer world may be possible, but to do so we have to make it safe ourselves: learn to set strong passwords, activate two-step verification, not to fall for phishing attempts, etc.
It has been the best meme of 2023 so far: David Bisbal enters the dressing room of the WiZink Center, where the Primavera Pop festival sponsored by Los 40 was being held and says “How are the machines? First of all, are you all right? Come on, let’s take a picture”. In fact, for the first time in a long time, everyone who has spoken about the singer has been to extol his virtues. However, it is not the first time that Bisbal has given us memes showing us that, why deny it, he is a machine.
Neither put lyrics to it as Marta Sánchez did nor extol patriotic values in outlandish ways: David Bisbal came out of the gym and in an Instagram story under the text “Spain” sang every note of the anthem as if feeling them deep in his soul. There is no October 12 that Bisbal does not return to Twitter. With good reason.
Child Jesus
Year 2004. A Bisbal who only two years after his appearance in ‘Operation Triumph‘ went to Tres Cantos to participate in a living nativity scene absolutely tropospheric: Ana Torroja as the Virgin Mary, El Sevilla as St. Joseph, Estopa as the little angels, Malú as the shepherdess… And our protagonist as the Baby Jesus. He can’t help being a machine.
Dancing pharmacy
In 2002, a young David Bisbal, who at that time was touring Spain with the Expresiones Orchestra, stood out by jumping, bouncing and giving his all on stage. And as proof, the casting of ‘Operación Triunfo’ in which he showed what he knew how to do. What he didn’t expect was that twenty years later he would go viral because his dancing would go with any music. Particularly with ‘Farmacia de guardia’, as Lola Indigo showed in ‘La resistencia’.
The streets of Egypt
David Bisbal, in his traveling facet, became the talk of Twitter in 2011 after his socio-political commentary on the popular revolt that led to the end of Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship: “Never have the pyramids of Egypt been so little traveled, hopefully soon the revolt will end“. For days #turismobisbal was trending topic, and only dared to say that he had never been to the country ten years later, in ‘La Sexta Noche’, where he confessed his passion for Ramses II. Another machine.
Yatekomo, Yatekomo
The proof that Bisbal is much more than a singer, a pop culture star, is his ability to laugh at himself. And nowhere more so than in the Yatekomo ad to the rhythm of ‘Bulería‘, which left its mark on the collective imagination. It was not the only ad in which he showed his face with his consequent joke, or don’t you remember that “Milk, cocoa, hazelnuts and sugar” intoned as if they were the most romantic song in the world?
This is unbelievable
Before the machines, the noodles, his cameo in ‘Torrente 4’ and Egypt, Bisbal was the most imitated of the academy of ‘Operación Triunfo’ (along with the cries of Bustamante) for a phrase that haunts him to this day: “This is incredible”. One of the first memes in the history of Spain and that still resonates now. And it is time to admit that it is an essential piece to understand the Spanish pop culture. And not only because of the “pop”.
Everything you need to know about the Personal Hotspot feature.
Nowadays we want to be connected to the Internet, wherever we are and at all times. That’s easy for our iPhone, which comes with built-in internet connection, but more tricky for other devices like the Mac or even the iPad, if it’s a Wi-Fi only model.
A search engine and browser with which we can browse and search the internet with guaranteed privacy.
The Internet has changed a lot in recent years. The search engine we use and the browser we have to move around the network determines, and a lot, the experience we will get. But it is more than just the experience, we are talking about privacy, we are talking about the veracity of the information, we are talking about what is the window to the hyper-connected world we live in.
