Mercedes-Benz is offering a glimpse into the future with myCOMAND, an internet-based infotainment system as part of a special preview during the Los Angeles Auto Show. myCOMAND is said to be especially efficient and user-friendly. Using internet connectivity, all data and information is kept fresh and current at all times without the need for software or hardware updates. All functions are concentrated on one user interface for easy and intuitive access. For the Mercedes-Benz researchers, complete integration, reliable operation and data protection were the highest priorities in the design of myCOMAND.
Agencies eventually will use IPv6 addresses for their network nodes, especially now that they have met the Office of Management and Budget’s deadline for enabling network backbones for IPv6. And with all those bits to work with — 128 bits to be precise — an IPv6 address can be used for more than just letting routers know where to send packets.
DirectAccess uses IPv6-over-IPsec (IPv6 should already be on every administrator’s mind anyway — I wrote about IPv6 here), and the advantages are obvious: through Group Policy settings, mobile computers can be managed any time the computer has Internet connectivity (and not only when the computer connects to the network). This ensures that even mobile computers stay updated and in line with local policies.
A study carried out by Google employees and presented at the RIPE meeting in Dubai examined how widespread use of version 6 of the internet protocol, IPv6, is among end users. The study drew some surprising conclusionsPDF. For instance, just this past September, Arbor Networks placed worldwide use of IPv6 at only 0.0026 per cent, but according to the Google study, the percentage of computers using IPv6 access to the internet grew steadily from 0.192 per cent in August up to 0.238 per cent in October. The Google scientists concluded that on an additional 0.09 per cent of computers, an IPv6 internet connection is not functioning properly.
At the RIPE meeting in Dubai two weeks ago, Google presented results from a study about how IPv6-capable “ordinary users” are. And the results are surprising. While an earlier study by Arbor Networks showed only 0.0026 percent of all traffic was IPv6 enabled, Google determined that world wide, 0.238 percent of their users’ systems have IPv6 enabled and prefer to use IPv6 over IPv4 where possible.
Search engine giant Google is taking the next steps towards IPv6. Admittedly, as Google developer and IPv6 expert Lorenzo Colitti said at the RIPE meeting in Dubai, having an IPv6 entry for the central www.google.com web page is still regarded as too ambitious. The problem is that about one in 10,000 users won’t be able to access the Google page anymore if there is a dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 solution. Colitti said, although the numbers Google established in a study carried out with IPv6 usersPDF were lower than expected, “But that’s still not acceptable,”.
It’s called “The Internet of Things” — at least for now. It refers to an imminent world where physical objects and beings, as well as virtual data and environments, all live and interact with each other in the same space and time. In short, everything is interconnected.
Boredomresearch’s carrier snail wears an RFID chip on its shell, ready to pick up or deliver an e-mail.
“If we can imagine it, there’s a good chance it can be programmed,” wrote Vint Cerf, the original Internet evangelist, on the official Google blog.
“The Internet of the future will be suffused with software, information, data archives, and populated with devices, appliances, and people who are interacting with and through this rich fabric.”
The Internet will get support for IPv6, a more secure domain name system and international characters, during the next couple of years, according to Vint Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist at Google.
“This year and the next year are probably the most significant years for Internet’s evolution that I can remember,” said Cerf, who was one of the keynote speakers at the Internetdagarna (The Internet Days) conference in Stockholm.
Baidu.com (BIDU.NASDAQ) announced on Thursday that it has deepened its strategic cooperation with Cisco, and the alliance has realized the research and development, deploy and testing of an imitated Internet platform scheme. Research group co-established by the two parties has completed the ultimate bearing capacity test of “next generation” Internet platform. In addition, it will study such popular technology programs as netizen experience and IPv6.
