Ostensibly in retaliation to Western media’s coverage of anti-Chinese demonstrations in Europe, the Sports Network website was hacked last Sunday. The site was defaced with the image that you see here (captured by ChristineLu.com). Repeated attacks, most probably serious denial-of-service assaults, have caused the site to be taken down. After a few days, the site was still inaccessible.

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Just now I got a text message from Bob Martin, who’s wondering why he can’t access Google’s search pages. Then, he said he can’t access his Google AdSense account pages as well. What happens, according to Bob, is he gets redirected to a landing page whenever he tries to access www.google.com. Take a look at this screen capture of Bob’s browser.

He’s connected to the Internet via PLDT myDSL. Why is PLDT seemingly blocking Google? In fact, it’s not just Google but AltaVista, Yahoo! and MSN as well. And on that landing page is PLDT’s own search engine, with advertisements.

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WHICH BROWSER DO you use when you surf the ‘Net? Chances are, it’s Internet Explorer, because most of us use Windows, and this browser comes bundled with Microsoft’s operating system. Here’s a breakdown of browser usage all over the world (Jan.-Feb.2008 figures. Source: TechCrunch):

Internet Explorer (“IE”) is now on version 7. And I must say––without prejudice against the other browsers––it’s a huge improvement over its previous release. But there’s a problem here: too many people are still using Interne Explorer 6 (“IE6”). If you take a look at the table above, more than a fifth of Internet users around the world are still stuck at version 6.

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News of Microsoft’s intent to acquire Yahoo! has been all over the Internet lately, and everyone seems to be thinking that the acquisition is a done deal. Maybe so. And what does Google think about it?

In the official Google blog, David Drummond, Corporate Development Senior VP and Chief Legal Officer, voices out a very strong opposition to the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo! deal, which he calls a “hostile bid.” Microsoft is further represented as a blundering, monopoly-mongering and offensive beast. In his post, Drummond recounted the ways in which Microsoft had bullied its way in the 1990s. •••Read on»

VeriSign, the company that globally manages the two most popular top-level domains (TLDs), has announced that it will raise the wholesale rates of .com and .net domain names this 15th of October 2007. Domain names ending in .com, from $6.00, will be increased to $6.42; and .net domains, from $3.50 to $3.85.

This rather huge increase will necessarily mean that domain registrars and resellers will have to increase the retail prices of these domain names. I use ctcd.com, and they currently sell domain names for $8.94 per year. This rate is indeed a far cry from the time when Internet addresses sold for $35 per year, but — in Internet time — that was ages ago when Network Solutions held the monopoly. •••Read on»

A strong indication that Dabawenyos have firmly stepped onto the digital world is the wide acceptance of Internet-based services. Davao’s I.T. industry leaders should really come up with hard figures because we have no clear picture of just how many Internet users there are, but judging by the traffic Davao websites get, we can get a good idea. An excellent example of such a high-traffic website is Davao Exchange (www.davaoexchange.com) — a free online classified ads site.

Davao Exchange was built from the ground up by Marc Javellana, a netrepreneur who staunchly believes in the power of the Internet as a springboard for emerging businesses. Marc is blessed with a solid background in computer programming, plus an acute sense for online commerce. •••Read on»

Our DSL Internet connection at home sucks. It used to be that the problem was just the disconnections during bad weather. But now, rain or shine, there’s longer down times than actual connectivity. See, it’s not a cabled DSL connection — it’s broadband via mobile cell site broadcast. •••Read on»

Ever since I started blogging in earnest, I’ve been hearing about certain notable personalities. Abe Olandres of Yugatech, of course, and Mark Macalua. And DigitalFilipino’s Janette Toral, who was the one who inspired me. In Davao as well: Dennis Agulo of Cerveo Internet Solutions, and Ayeza of Bisaya Bloggers. But the Davao blogger and SEO specialist whom I’ve gotten to admire the most is Andrew dela Serna.

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Yesterday Aileen Apolo, country consultant of Google Philippines met up with SEO professionals in Davao. (This was her second meet-up with them, the first being in November last year.) Aileen’s talk focused on Google AdWords. Simply put, it is an online service by which advertisers can promote and market their products / services via Google’s ubiquitous Internet presence.

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It seems that the older you get, the fonder you grow towards reminiscing them good ol’ days. Last Friday, with my good friends Rodney and Christian, we welcomed back an old friend, Roel Hernandez. Although, he was in town for only a short while. We spent virtually the whole night recalling past events in Davao’s colorful IT history.

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