Fresh water pumped into reactor at Japan nuclear plant

Fresh water pumped into reactor at Japan nuclear plant

Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama, right, huddles with his aide during a press conference on the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, in Tokyo on Friday.
AP Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama, right, huddles with his aide during a press conference on the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, in Tokyo on Friday.

The operator of a stricken nuclear power plant in north-eastern Japan started Saturday to inject fresh water into an overheating reactor.

The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), started pumping water into reactor 2 at Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant as workers tried to restore light and power to the control room in their efforts to get the reactor’s cooling system operational. The plant was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami.

Radiation-contaminated water has been found near four of its reactors, which it was feared might have seeped from damaged reactor cores or spent-fuel pools.

The operator has vowed to clear the radioactive water as quickly as possible to allow workers access to the reactors as they attempt to restore the cooling systems. On Thursday, three engineers working on the cooling system at reactor 3 were exposed to radiation levels in water at 10,000 times the normal level.

Those levels suggested the vessel might have been damaged and leaked radioactive materials, Hidehirko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the government’s nuclear safety commission, told a news conference.

The three workers’ radiation exposure was believed to have been at levels amounting to 173 to 180 millisieverts.

Two of the three workers were hospitalized Thursday with beta ray radiation burns to their legs caused by direct exposure, TEPCO said.

Authorities have identified eight radioactive substances in stagnant water in the basement of part of the plant, an analysis released Saturday by the commission showed.

The highest levels found in the water in reactor 1 of the plant were of caesium 137, a radioactive isotope that was released into the environment in the Chernobyl disaster. It appeared at levels of 1.8 million becquerel.

Caesium 137, in contrast to radioactive iodine, has a relatively long half life of 30.2 years. It is created during nuclear fission.

The water also contained caesium isotopes 134 and 136 as well as iodine-131.

Seventeen workers at the plant have been diagnosed as contaminated since the plant was damaged in a March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami. That figure includes only those who have been exposed to more than 100 millisieverts of radiation, the maximum allowed exposure for a nuclear plant worker for an entire year.

Keywords: Japan Quqake,Japan Tsunami, Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant ,Radioactive LEakage

Live Cricket World Cup 2011

ICC Cricket World Cup - 3rd quarter final - New Zealand v South Africa

ICC Cricket World Cup - 3rd quarter final

New Zealand v South Africa

New Zealand won by 49 runs










New Zealand innings (50 overs maximum) R M B 4s 6s SR
View dismissal MJ Guptill c Botha b Steyn 1 24 14 0 0 7.14
View dismissal BB McCullum c & b Peterson 4 7 4 0 0 100.00
View dismissal JD Ryder c sub (CA Ingram) b Imran Tahir 83 157 121 8 0 68.59
View dismissal LRPL Taylor c Kallis b Imran Tahir 43 113 72 1 1 59.72
View dismissal SB Styris b Morkel 16 19 17 3 0 94.11

KS Williamson not out 38 63 41 1 1 92.68
View dismissal NL McCullum c Duminy b Steyn 6 29 18 0 0 33.33
View dismissal JDP Oram b Morkel 7 14 6 1 0 116.66
View dismissal DL Vettori* b Morkel 6 4 4 1 0 150.00

LJ Woodcock not out 3 8 3 0 0 100.00

Extras (b 4, lb 4, w 6) 14











Total (8 wickets; 50 overs; 220 mins) 221 (4.42 runs per over)
Did not bat TG Southee
Fall of wickets1-5 (BB McCullum, 2.1 ov), 2-16 (Guptill, 5.6 ov), 3-130 (Taylor, 32.6 ov), 4-153 (Styris, 37.2 ov), 5-156 (Ryder, 38.5 ov), 6-188 (NL McCullum, 45.3 ov), 7-204 (Oram, 48.1 ov), 8-210 (Vettori, 48.5 ov)










Bowling O M R W Econ

View wicket RJ Peterson 9 0 49 1 5.44

View wickets DW Steyn 10 0 42 2 4.20 (2w)

J Botha 9 0 29 0 3.22 (1w)
View wickets M Morkel 8 0 46 3 5.75

View wickets Imran Tahir 9 0 32 2 3.55 (1w)

JH Kallis 3 1 6 0 2.00


JP Duminy 2 0 9 0 4.50 (1w)









South Africa innings (target: 222 runs from 50 overs) R M B 4s 6s SR
View dismissal HM Amla c Vettori b NL McCullum 7 4 5 1 0 140.00
View dismissal GC Smith* c sub (JM How) b Oram 28 59 34 2 0 82.35
View dismissal JH Kallis c Oram b Southee 47 96 75 3 0 62.66
View dismissal AB de Villiers run out (Guptill/†BB McCullum) 35 63 40 4 0 87.50
View dismissal JP Duminy b NL McCullum 3 18 12 0 0 25.00
View dismissal F du Plessis c Southee b Oram 36 70 43 3 1 83.72
View dismissal J Botha b Oram 2 18 10 0 0 20.00
View dismissal RJ Peterson c †BB McCullum b Oram 0 9 5 0 0 0.00
View dismissal DW Steyn c Oram b NL McCullum 8 14 18 1 0 44.44
View dismissal M Morkel c sub (JM How) b Woodcock 3 30 17 0 0 17.64

Imran Tahir not out 0 4 1 0 0 0.00

Extras (lb 2, w 1) 3











Total (all out; 43.2 overs; 192 mins) 172 (3.96 runs per over)
Fall of wickets1-8 (Amla, 0.6 ov), 2-69 (Smith, 14.2 ov), 3-108 (Kallis, 24.1 ov), 4-121 (Duminy, 27.4 ov), 5-121 (de Villiers, 27.6 ov), 6-128 (Botha, 32.5 ov), 7-132 (Peterson, 34.2 ov), 8-146 (Steyn, 37.4 ov), 9-172 (du Plessis, 42.5 ov), 10-172 (Morkel, 43.2 ov)










Bowling O M R W Econ

View wickets NL McCullum 10 1 24 3 2.40


DL Vettori 10 0 39 0 3.90

View wicket TG Southee 9 0 44 1 4.88

View wickets JDP Oram 9 1 39 4 4.33

View wicket LJ Woodcock 5.2 0 24 1 4.50 (1w)
Match details
Toss New Zealand, who chose to bat
Series New Zealand advanced
Player of the match JDP Oram (New Zealand)
Umpires Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and RJ Tucker (Australia)
TV umpire HDPK Dharmasena (Sri Lanka)
Match referee RS Mahanama (Sri Lanka)
Reserve umpire NJ Llong (England)
Match notes
  • New Zealand innings
  • Powerplay 1: Overs 0.1 - 10.0 (Mandatory - 34 runs, 2 wickets)
  • Powerplay 2: Overs 10.1 - 15.0 (Bowling side - 23 runs, 0 wicket)
  • New Zealand: 50 runs in 12.5 overs (77 balls), Extras 4
  • 3rd Wicket: 50 runs in 71 balls (JD Ryder 36, LRPL Taylor 14, Ex 3)
  • Drinks: New Zealand - 69/2 in 18.0 overs (JD Ryder 46, LRPL Taylor 14)
  • JD Ryder: 50 off 70 balls (6 x 4)
  • New Zealand: 100 runs in 27.1 overs (163 balls), Extras 6
  • 3rd Wicket: 100 runs in 144 balls (JD Ryder 61, LRPL Taylor 34, Ex 5)
  • Drinks: New Zealand - 130/3 in 33.0 overs (JD Ryder 76)
  • New Zealand: 150 runs in 36.2 overs (218 balls), Extras 6
  • Powerplay 3: Overs 44.1 - 49.0 (Batting side - 37 runs, 3 wickets)
  • New Zealand: 200 runs in 47.3 overs (285 balls), Extras 11
  • Innings Break: New Zealand - 221/8 in 50.0 overs (KS Williamson 38, LJ Woodcock 3)
  • South Africa innings
  • Powerplay 1: Overs 0.1 - 10.0 (Mandatory - 50 runs, 1 wicket)
  • South Africa: 50 runs in 9.6 overs (60 balls), Extras 0
  • Powerplay 2: Overs 10.1 - 15.0 (Bowling side - 19 runs, 1 wicket)
  • 2nd Wicket: 50 runs in 66 balls (GC Smith 21, JH Kallis 29, Ex 0)
  • Drinks: South Africa - 74/2 in 17.0 overs (JH Kallis 38, AB de Villiers 1)
  • South Africa: 100 runs in 22.2 overs (134 balls), Extras 0
  • Drinks: South Africa - 128/6 in 32.5 overs (F du Plessis 5)
  • Powerplay 3: Overs 38.1 - 43.0 (Batting side - 26 runs, 1 wicket)
  • South Africa: 150 runs in 38.6 overs (234 balls), Extras 2

Oram leads New Zealand to stunning upset

New Zealand v South Africa, 3rd quarter-final, World Cup 2011, Mirpur

Oram leads New Zealand to stunning upset

The Bulletin by Sriram Veera

March 25, 2011



New Zealand 221 for 8 (Ryder 83, Taylor 43, Morkel 3-46) beat South Africa 172 (Oram 4-39) by 49 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details


Jacob Oram got rid of Johan Botha cheaply, New Zealand v South Africa, 3rd quarter-final, Mirpur, World Cup 2011, March 25, 2011
Jacob Oram took four wickets and two catches to trigger a South African collpase in Mirpur © Associated Press


Oh South Africa, what have you done? Earlier this month Graeme Smith tweeted an article titled 'Time to ban the 'C' word'. Hold on to that thought Smith, for clearly that time hasn't come yet. South Africa were cruising at 108 for 2 in the 25th over when Jacques Kallis fell and they crash-landed spectacularly to be shot out for 172. The self-destructive streak, demonically masochistic in nature, will perhaps need shrinks to decode it. Once they realised their opponents were cracking under pressure, New Zealand went for the kill with close-in fielders and disciplined bowling, led by Jacob Oram who took four wickets and a great catch.

Even when Kallis fell - to a blinder of a catch from Jacob Oram, rushing to his left at deep midwicket - there wasn't much to suggest that this could turn into another contender for all-time greatest choke in World Cup history. The pitch was slow but there was no sharp turn; the bowlers were disciplined but there was no sensational game-breaking spell; none of the three spinners got much purchase from the wicket; and the total was below par; but for some reason South Africa were feeling extremely claustrophobic.

Their nerves were best represented by the dismissal of JP Duminy, who played an awful shot to open the choke gates. Nathan McCullum slowed up the pace on a delivery that landed on a length, outside off, and Duminy went so hard into an ugly cut that he ended up dragging the ball on to his stumps. With Duminy's fall, South Africa were in a spot of bother at 121 for 4, in the 28th over, and the first signs of something special loomed over Mirpur.

There was more heartbreak for South Africa fans in the next over. Faf du Plessis hit straight to midwicket and ran like a headless chicken. AB de Villiers should perhaps have refused that call but he responded, only to find himself well short of the crease. It was at this moment that New Zealand really sensed that this could be their night.

The moment was so ripe that even Daniel Vettori, not known for sledging, gave some lip to du Plessis and Kyle Mills, who had carried drinks on to the field at the fall of de Villiers, got into the act. A visibly agitated du Plessis shoved Mills, the departing de Villiers returned to support his partner, and eventually the umpires had to get involved. New Zealand's players swooped in to the crime scene and it was a classic Youtube moment. You could almost feel the pressure-cooker situation out there.

New Zealand crowded the bat with close-in men, ready to sledge and eager to pile on the pressure, and Johan Botha cracked in the 33rd over. It was a lovely legcutter from Oram and Botha played down the wrong line to lose his off stump. Oram, who was the man who started it all with that Kallis catch, wasn't done yet. In the 35th over, he lured Robin Peterson into edging an attempted cut to the keeper and South Africa were swaying away like drunken men at 132 for 7. South Africa's nerves were frayed further when Dale Steyn square drove Nathan McCullum in the air to backward point, where who else but Oram accepted the offering.

If Oram was the man in the forefront of New Zealand's resurgence, du Plessis was the man seeking redemption for making that wrong call that led to the run out of de Villiers. In his brief international career, he has already shown a tenacity to remain relatively calm under pressure. And he wasn't ready to throw in the towel. He was on 14 when Steyn fell, and he took ownership of the chase. He rushed down the track to slam Tim Southee to the straight boundary in the 40th over, on drove Vettori to collect another four in the 41st, and even lifted Oram for a thrilling six over long-off in the 43rd over.

It was in the same over that the game turned for one last time, and it was also an over that captured the entire madness of the evening. du Plessis had crashed the first delivery of the over back at Oram who couldn't hold on to a very difficult chance, and once the six was hit, one had to ask the question: was the night turning for Oram? Was it swinging towards du Plessis? But du Plessis sliced the fifth ball straight to extra cover and South Africa had well and truly sunk into oblivion.

The end was a far cry from the way South Africa started the day. They attacked with spin and seam, shuffled their bowlers regularly like a pack of cards, and hustled on the field to keep a tight leash on New Zealand. Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor were at the forefront of a revival from the depths of 16 for 2; carefully, almost mindful of a potential lower-order collapse on this pitch, Ryder and Taylor battled through. The odd boundary signalled growing comfort, but they never broke away decisively. A nervy equilibrium had been reached by the end of the 30th over with New Zealand reaching 112 for 2 and the game was waiting to be seized. However, both Ryder and Taylor departed in quick succession but Kane Williamson made a vital 38 to push New Zealand to 221.

It shouldn't have been enough, it didn't feel like enough, but it proved enough. It was a crazy crazy night in Mirpur. Ironically, Allan Donald, the man who was involved in the other famous South African choke, was in the other camp tonight.





Sriram Veera is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo


RSS Feeds: Sriram Veera

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.


Australia's loss heralds the end of an era

Australia's loss heralds the end of an era

Ricky Ponting doesn't think Australia bowing out of the World Cup marks the end of an era, but it's impossible to come to any other conclusion

Brydon Coverdale

March 25, 2011



Ricky Ponting searches for inspiration as Pakistan's score mounts, Australia v Pakistan, Group A, World Cup 2011, Colombo, March 19, 2011
Ricky Ponting's tenure as captain of the one-day side may be coming to a close © Getty Images


Ricky Ponting doesn't think Australia bowing out of the World Cup marks the end of an era, but it's impossible to come to any other conclusion. For more than a decade, Australia have owned all sorts of silverware, Cricket Australia's headquarters in Melbourne more a trophy cabinet than an office. Now, the last of those major prizes is finding a new home after 12 years in Australian hands.

Over the past six months, Ponting's men have lost the Ashes and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, or to be more accurate, they have failed to regain them. Those crowns were already gone. They are clinging on to the Champions Trophy, but there's every chance the ICC will soon scrap that event entirely. In any case, it is a trinket compared to the World Cup.

Losing the World Cup for the first time since 1996 will hurt tremendously, but winning three in a row should be celebrated. No country has ever matched that feat in the FIFA World Cup. Since Steve Waugh's men began the dynasty in 1999, the football title has changed hands four times: from France to Brazil, then Italy and now Spain. Winning one world tournament is exceedingly difficult, let alone three in succession.

That is little consolation to this 2011 Australian squad, roughly half of whom didn't experience any of those earlier successes. Times change, and to be beaten by an India side that was better than Australia is no disgrace. Ponting's team entered the tournament with the No.1 ODI ranking - for now, they still hold that position - but were far from being the favourites.

There were factors beyond their control that contributed to their lack of success. Their two frontline spinners, Nathan Hauritz and Xavier Doherty, were unavailable due to injuries, as were fast bowlers like Clint McKay and Ryan Harris, who could have added variety. Two weeks in the middle of the tournament without a match, when their clash with Sri Lanka was washed out, didn't help either.

But ultimately, Australia just weren't good enough. Four teams will reach the semi-finals, and will deserve to be there. Australia did not play well enough to join them. That is not to say that the powers that be should blindly accept that nothing can be done. Moving on and making hard decisions will allow regrowth and rejuvenation.

The natural time for change is at the end of an unsuccessful World Cup cycle, on the heels of a disappointing Ashes cycle. As Ian Chappell told ESPNcricinfo in his analysis after the loss to India, Australia must look to a new captain to guide a new team. They have a chance to begin that process with next month's one-day tour of Bangladesh.

The selectors will be loath to make any major changes, including to the leadership, before the review of Australia's on-field performance is completed around August. After the Ashes debacle, they have their own jobs to worry about without rocking the boat further. Why pre-empt the review, they will ask. But it would be wise to use the Bangladesh trip to look at some new faces, men who might become key players for Australia over the next few years.

There are no shortage of options - Aaron Finch, Daniel Christian, Steve O'Keefe, Luke Butterworth, James Pattinson, James Faulkner, to name but a few. And by the next World Cup, Michael Clarke will be the likely captain, so if the selectors are brave enough, it wouldn't hurt to give him the one-day leadership now and allow him four years to mould a side.

Veterans like Brett Lee, who was impressive at the World Cup but wants to go on and aim for 400 ODI wickets, should consider what is best for the team. Can they contribute to the next era of Australian one-day cricket? And if not, is it right to take up a place that could go to a younger man?

"It's a bit premature to say it was the end of an era for Australian cricket, it was a pretty good game tonight," Ponting said after the loss in Ahmedabad. "I didn't think we were far away from winning a game against a very good Indian team on their home soil. I thought we were very competitive tonight, we've lost our last two games in the World Cup, I'm disappointed with that. I thought we were a better team than we probably showed in the last few games. I think it's a bit too early to say it's the end of an era."

But if not now, when?

Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

RSS Feeds: Brydon Coverdale

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Mozilla's Firefox 4 bags 1M downloads in 3 hours

Mozilla's Firefox 4 bags 1M downloads in 3 hours

New open-source browser off to strong start

By Gregg Keizer
March 22, 2011 01:14 PM ET


Computerworld - Firefox 4 got off to a strong start today, with 1 million copies of the new browser downloaded in the first three hours.

If it keeps up the early pace, Firefox 4 will easily beat Microsoft's claim that users downloaded 2.4 million copies of its Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) in the first 24 hours of availability last week.

Firefox 4 upgrade offer
Users of Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 will see this Firefox 4 upgrade offer after selecting "Check for updates" from the browser's Help menu.

Although Firefox 4's out-of-the-gate download tally was impressive, Mozilla executive Mike Beltzner said that it was behind the launch numbers of Firefox 3.6, which shipped in January 2010. During the first three hours, downloads averaged between 5,000 and 6,000 copies per minute, less than half the 12,000-per-minute pace of the previous version.

At around 9 a.m. PT Beltzner noted that it was just the start of the day on the west coast of the U.S., and noon on the east. He encouraged users to hit Mozilla's download servers.



"What better way to spend your break than by downloading Firefox 4," said Beltzner during a live Webcast hosted by Mozilla.

Mozilla has posted a real-time download calculator on its site.

When the new browser reached one million downloads, Mozilla developers and employees rang cowbells, cheered, and watched as someone dressed in a Firefox mascot costume danced around the room.

Tuesday's release marked the end of more than a year of development by Mozilla, which issued the first "alpha" edition of the browser in February 2010. Firefox 4 was originally scheduled to ship last November, but bugs and other delays forced it to announce in October that it would instead wrap up development early this year.

The code designated as final today was identical to Firefox 4 Release Candidate 2 (RC2), a last-minute update that Mozilla issued last Friday.

Mozilla's Firefox 4 was the second major upgrade shipped by browser makers in just over a week. On March 14, Microsoft launched the final version of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9).

Firefox 4 features a new tab manager, dubbed "Panorama," boasts an overhauled interface that resembles Chrome's minimalist design, and supports GPU acceleration to boost page composition speeds.

Hardware acceleration has become a point of contention between Mozilla and Microsoft. The latter has touted IE9 as the only browser to "fully hardware accelerate the entire Web platform," while Mozilla has criticized its rival for abandoning Windows XP users. IE9 runs only on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Microsoft today again defended that decision.

"The developer community has been vocal that they want to push the Web forward," a Microsoft spokesman said in an e-mail. "The browser is only as good as the operating system it runs on and a browser running on a ten-year-old operating system tethers the Web to the past. The time has come to stop focusing on lowest common denominator, and to really push what's possible with innovations like full hardware acceleration."

Some Mozilla developers have used stronger words to describe Microsoft's argument that IE9 is the best browser on Windows.

"Microsoft's message that IE9 is the apex of what a browser can do with the GPU is nonsense," said Robert O'Callahan, a New Zealand employee of Novell who works full time on Mozilla's graphics infrastructure. In a post to his personal blog, O'Callahan said, "Microsoft's PR about 'full hardware acceleration' is a myth."

Mozilla technology evangelist Asa Dotzler was even more blunt. "Microsoft, stop making bull**** claims about hardware acceleration," Dotzler titled a post to his personal blog two weeks ago.

Users can download Firefox 4 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from Mozilla's site.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at Twitter@gkeizer, or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed Keizer RSS. His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com.


Mozilla's Firefox 4 bags 1M downloads in 3 hours

Mozilla's Firefox 4 bags 1M downloads in 3 hours

New open-source browser off to strong start

By Gregg Keizer
March 22, 2011 01:14 PM ET


Computerworld - Firefox 4 got off to a strong start today, with 1 million copies of the new browser downloaded in the first three hours.

If it keeps up the early pace, Firefox 4 will easily beat Microsoft's claim that users downloaded 2.4 million copies of its Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) in the first 24 hours of availability last week.

Firefox 4 upgrade offer
Users of Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 will see this Firefox 4 upgrade offer after selecting "Check for updates" from the browser's Help menu.

Although Firefox 4's out-of-the-gate download tally was impressive, Mozilla executive Mike Beltzner said that it was behind the launch numbers of Firefox 3.6, which shipped in January 2010. During the first three hours, downloads averaged between 5,000 and 6,000 copies per minute, less than half the 12,000-per-minute pace of the previous version.

At around 9 a.m. PT Beltzner noted that it was just the start of the day on the west coast of the U.S., and noon on the east. He encouraged users to hit Mozilla's download servers.



"What better way to spend your break than by downloading Firefox 4," said Beltzner during a live Webcast hosted by Mozilla.

Mozilla has posted a real-time download calculator on its site.

When the new browser reached one million downloads, Mozilla developers and employees rang cowbells, cheered, and watched as someone dressed in a Firefox mascot costume danced around the room.

Tuesday's release marked the end of more than a year of development by Mozilla, which issued the first "alpha" edition of the browser in February 2010. Firefox 4 was originally scheduled to ship last November, but bugs and other delays forced it to announce in October that it would instead wrap up development early this year.

The code designated as final today was identical to Firefox 4 Release Candidate 2 (RC2), a last-minute update that Mozilla issued last Friday.

Mozilla's Firefox 4 was the second major upgrade shipped by browser makers in just over a week. On March 14, Microsoft launched the final version of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9).

Firefox 4 features a new tab manager, dubbed "Panorama," boasts an overhauled interface that resembles Chrome's minimalist design, and supports GPU acceleration to boost page composition speeds.

Hardware acceleration has become a point of contention between Mozilla and Microsoft. The latter has touted IE9 as the only browser to "fully hardware accelerate the entire Web platform," while Mozilla has criticized its rival for abandoning Windows XP users. IE9 runs only on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Microsoft today again defended that decision.

"The developer community has been vocal that they want to push the Web forward," a Microsoft spokesman said in an e-mail. "The browser is only as good as the operating system it runs on and a browser running on a ten-year-old operating system tethers the Web to the past. The time has come to stop focusing on lowest common denominator, and to really push what's possible with innovations like full hardware acceleration."

Some Mozilla developers have used stronger words to describe Microsoft's argument that IE9 is the best browser on Windows.

"Microsoft's message that IE9 is the apex of what a browser can do with the GPU is nonsense," said Robert O'Callahan, a New Zealand employee of Novell who works full time on Mozilla's graphics infrastructure. In a post to his personal blog, O'Callahan said, "Microsoft's PR about 'full hardware acceleration' is a myth."

Mozilla technology evangelist Asa Dotzler was even more blunt. "Microsoft, stop making bull**** claims about hardware acceleration," Dotzler titled a post to his personal blog two weeks ago.

Users can download Firefox 4 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from Mozilla's site.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at Twitter@gkeizer, or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed Keizer RSS. His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com.


Google says China blocking Gmail access

Google says China blocking Gmail access

By Michael Kan
March 21, 2011 03:47 AM ET


IDG News Service - China is blocking Gmail in the country with methods that make it look as if the access problems lie with Google, said the search engine giant on Monday.

In the last several weeks, Internet users in China have reported greater difficulty with visiting the Gmail site, posting on microblogs that the email service is either slow or inaccessible.

Google said the Chinese government is responsible for the access problems.

"There is no technical issue on our side. We have checked extensively," said a Google spokesperson. "This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail."

The recent Gmail access problems have not qualified as significant interruptions, according to Google's online traffic report. This is most likely because the blockages are intermittent and are less thorough.

The blocking of Gmail coincides with China's recent efforts to suppress any mention relating to the "Jasmine Revolution", which began as an online call urging the Chinese people to protest the government.

While China regularly blocks politically sensitive content, experts say government censors have further tightened their grip on the Web in the last few weeks. The word "Jasmine" and terms relating to the anti-government protests in the Middle East can no longer be searched for on the country's microblogs. China has also responded by arresting activists, harassing foreign journalists and deploying large police forces to prevent unrest.

Gmail has seen problems from China in the past. Google said that in Dec. 2009, a cyber attack originating from China tried to infiltrate and access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

The current access problems with Gmail add to a growing list of Google products that have been blocked or partly blocked in the country. Users can no longer access YouTube or Blogger. Google Maps could also face penalties from the Chinese government if the search engine fails to apply for the necessary licenses by this July.

Analysts say Google's refusal to comply with Chinese censorship laws has been one major reason why the company has struggled in the country. Google currently has a 19.6% share of the search engine market, falling from 35% at the end of 2009, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International. In the past, Google has said the Internet censorship practiced by China is a trade barrier.

Other social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are also blocked. As a result, users in the country have migrated toward the domestic social media sites that observe China's strict censorship rules.


I have Top paying keywords but How to apply them ?


Applying top paying keywords in your website is quite similar to Search Engine Optimization. However, there are many differences as well. I have done in-depth research on the subject. On the basis of that research, I have marked the points you need to keep in mind while optimizing your website for maximum payouts through highest paying Adsense keywords. We will discuss how to apply top paying keywords as well as traffic pulling keywords to a webpage for maximum payouts and traffic.

First of all, we must understand that Google Adsense bot (formally known as Google Mediabot) is a subset of Google's main crawler. The crawler detects the theme of the pages and makes an entry in the Google's index (a private index - not shown publicly) that records the theme of all the pages hosting Adsense script. In other words, Google Mediabot has the characteristics somewhat similar to Google's main crawler.

There are two types of optimizations that you need to follow to make a web page search engine optimized. Same is the case with Adsense Optimization.

Internal Optimization : Internal Optimization includes Meta tags, Title Text, Optimization of content, and internal linking of your website. Here we will learn how to increase relevancy of ads and how to inject keywords that will help you get high paying ads. Internal Optimization has a high impact on the relevancy of ads and CTR.

External Optimization : This includes the web pages that are giving links to you (external profile of your website), anchor text being used to link your website, and many more variables that search engines use to evaluate the authoritative importance of a web page. External Optimization helps bring relevant traffic to your website and enables you to earn more by getting more CTR (Click Thru Ratio).

How long does your webpage take to show high paying ads?

This is an important question that needs to be answered. As soon as you apply Adsense script in a webpage, it is visited by the Google Mediabot (within 2 hours to 48 hours, if the bot is free - immediately). Google Mediabot's responsibility is to evaluate the theme of the web page, and enable ads almost immediately so that your website traffic does not see FREE SERVICE ADS.

The relevancy of ads increases as Google's main crawler visits your website and updates its index. Furthermore, you may observe an increase in the earnings as the PR of your website/web page increases. This means that in case of Google Adsense, the internal factors that affect the ads of a particular page are evaluated by Google Mediabot (but Google's main crawler can overwrite them). And on the other hand, the external factors are inspected by the Google Crawler over a period of time. Having said that, there are simply many many factors (including those which you cannot control) that affect your ads. We are going to discuss the factors that you can control. Lets take control!

Remember:

  1. Relevancy of ads may increase as your page is indexed by Google.
  2. EPC (Earnings Per lick) may increase as your PR increases.
  3. It entirely depends upon you how well you promote your website and get maximum earnings from your website/web pages.
  4. In case of Google, many variables are involved.

Mozilla sets Firefox 4 release for Tuesday

Mozilla sets Firefox 4 release for Tuesday

Wraps up year-plus cycle, calls current RC suitable as final code

By Gregg Keizer
March 17, 2011 06:51 AM ET

Computerworld - Mozilla on Wednesday announced it would ship the final version of Firefox 4 on March 22.

The upgrade will be available for downloading at approximately 7:00 a.m. PT next Tuesday.

Originally scheduled to ship last November, Firefox 4 will wrap up a development cycle that started in February 2010 with several developer previews, but began in earnest last July when Mozilla released the first of what would eventually be a dozen betas.

Wednesday, Mozilla developers called the current Release Candidate, or RC build of the browser, good enough to ship as the final. Traditionally, it has run through multiple release candidates before settling on the latest as the shipping code. More than a year ago, for example, Mozilla issued two release candidates of Firefox 3.6.

"Today's triage session concluded with all systems go for a Firefox 4 launch on March 22," said Damon Sicore, Mozilla's senior director of platform engineering, in a message on a company forum.

Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs congratulated the troops on the same forum.

"We set a goal in December, we stressed toward the goal. At times, many thought we, I, us, were crazy, or too aggressive ... but in the end, we were able to get it done in March," Kovacs said.

Firefox 4 will reach users eight days after Microsoft issued Internet Explorer 9 (IE9).

Before it began cranking out Firefox 4 betas, Mozilla had set an aggressive schedule that was to end with a final edition no later than November 2010. Last October, however, the open-source developer admitted it had underestimated several bugs, and said it was delaying the release until 2011.

Firefox 4 features a new tab manager, dubbed "Panorama," supports GPU acceleration to boost page composition speeds, and boasts an overhauled interface that resembles Chrome's and IE9's minimalist designs.

Mozilla is already prepping for the next version of Firefox. According to plans now circulating among developers, the company is considering an ambitious schedule that will ship a major upgrade every three or four months.

Firefox 4 is Mozilla's best shot at reclaiming some of the browser usage share it's lost in the last year. Recent statistics from Web analytics company Net Applications had Firefox's share at 21.7% in February, down from 24.5% 12 months before.

Anyone running Firefox 3.5 or 3.6 can grab the upgrade March 22 by selecting "Check for updates" from the Help menu. Users running Firefox 4 RC, however, won't need to download anything next week because Mozilla deemed that build identical to the final.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at Twitter @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed Keizer RSS. His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.


Firefox follows Chrome lead, eyes faster releases

Firefox follows Chrome lead, eyes faster releases

Not copying Chrome, says Mozilla exec, just wants to get features in users' hands faster

By Gregg Keizer
March 18, 2011 01:04 PM ET


Computerworld - Once Firefox 4 is out the door next week, Mozilla will likely shift to a faster development cycle for its browser, one that resembles the way Google rolls out a constant line of updates for Chrome.

But don't ask Mozilla if it's copying its rival.

"No one invented fast," said Johnathan Nightingale, director of Firefox development, when asked whether Mozilla's new faster-paced scheme was a response to Google. "We're developers, we want to get our features out there as quickly as possible."

According to a detailed proposal published earlier this week, Mozilla is considering a multi-channel scheme where new features are added to a series of versions -- nightly, experimental, beta and Firefox -- each of which feeds into the next-most-stable build until a polished edition is released.


The pace should result in a new Firefox every 16 weeks, meaning that Mozilla will ship Firefox 5 and 6, perhaps even Firefox 7, during 2011.

Google uses a similar process to continually feed features to Chrome, relying on a four-channel line of development: nightly, dev, beta and stable. The result? A new version of Chrome every six to eight weeks.

Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC, praised Mozilla's plan. "It is great to see Mozilla looking hard at streamlining their development to achieve a faster release cycle," said Hilwa. "There are a lot of benefits to smoothing and streamlining the development process to release it from the tyranny of dates."

But Mozilla's clearly reacting to the pressure from Chrome, Hilwa added. "Chrome's development model has been a successful experiment in terms of getting production releases with improvements and new features out quickly and much faster than in the past," Hilwa said. "This is causing waves in the industry, specifically for direct competitors."

The change Firefox users would immediately notice under the faster scheme is that new features will regularly appear in the browser, rather than waiting for months while work on the next edition is completed.

"Each release happens regardless of whether a given feature is ready, and releases are not delayed to wait for a feature to stabilize," said the planning document, which was posted by Firefox developer Rob Sayre. "The goal of the process is to provide regular improvements to users without disrupting longer term work."

"'Switch to tabs' was done in September," said Nightingale, referring to a new feature that will debut in Firefox 4 when it launches next Tuesday. "That killed [the feature's developers], having to wait."

Google announced a speedier development cycle in July 2010, when a Chrome program manager explained that the change meant "if a given feature is not complete, it will simply ride on the next release train when it's ready."


Since then, Google has issued five new "stable" versions of the browser, most recently Chrome 10 last week.

Mozilla's move would be a major departure for the open-source company. Firefox 4, for example, was in development for over a year, while Firefox 3.6 took about the same amount of time to complete.

The company has experimented with delivering less ambitious, but faster upgrades before, although not with much success. In January 2010, for example, Mozilla shipped Firefox 3.6, a relatively minor update that was to be quickly followed by Firefox 3.7. However, the company ended up dropping Firefox 3.7 from the schedule, and decided instead to introduce new features in its security patch updates.

Mozilla did the latter with June 2010's Firefox 3.6.4, which shipped with a new crash protection feature, but did not use the tactic again.

To replicate Chrome's rapid release schedule, said Sayre's planning document, Firefox will need to include a "silent update" feature that automatically delivers upgrades in the background, a practice Google uses for its browser. "This proposal also requires changes to our software update behavior to make them happen more automatically in the background and interrupt the user less often," said Sayre.

Nightingale, however, denied that silent updates was a requirement for the faster pace.

In August 2010, Mozilla had listed silent updates as one of the features that would make it into Firefox 4. But later, the company yanked the feature from the browser. In an interview Wednesday, Nightingale confirmed that silent updates didn't make it into the final of Firefox 4, and said developers are still working on the tool.

"We have a lot of patches [for silent update] under way," said Nightingale.

It's unclear how Mozilla will ship Firefox security updates if it pulls the trigger on the frequent-update plan, or how long the company will support earlier editions. Currently, Mozilla frequently delivers Firefox patches: In 2010, for instance, it shipped 13 security updates for Firefox 3.6, which launched in January of that year.

Nightingale said discussions are continuing about how best to serve up security fixes for Firefox in a faster-paced development process.

Google delivers Chrome patches with the stable version of the browser, which is updated every few weeks.

Mozilla's plan hasn't been formally adopted, but Nightingale hinted it would be. "Smaller, tighter releases will motivate all of us," he said yesterday.

The company will roll out Firefox 4 next week, and if it adopts the faster schedule, will start the clock on Firefox 5 "very soon" after, said Sayre.

Firefox 5 could ship as early as mid-June, according to Mozilla's plan.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at Twitter @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed Keizer RSS. His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.


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