'Humans will need two Earths by 2030'

'Humans will need two Earths by 2030'

Humans are overusing the planet's resources and will need two Earths by 2030,a new report warns. According to the Living Planet Report, human demands on natural resources have doubled in under 50 years and are now outstripping what the Earth can provide by more than half; and humanity 



carries on as it is in use of resources, globally it will need the capacity of two Earths by 2030.
The report said that wildlife in tropical countries is also under huge pressure, with populations of species falling by 60 per cent in three decades, the 'Daily Mail' reported.


And the report, from the WWF, the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network, said that British people are still consuming far more than the Earth can cope with.


If everyone lived such a lifestyle, humans would need 2.75 planets to survive, it warned.


The study's authors looked at 8,000 populations of 2,500 species and studied the change in land use and water consumption across the globe.


Britain comes 31st in a list of countries based on their 'ecological footprint' - the amount of land and sea each person needs to provide the food, clothes and other products they consume and to absorb the carbon dioxide they emit.


The country has fallen down the league table from having the 15th biggest footprint in the last report two years ago, but WWF attributes this to an increase in other countries' impact rather than a reduction in the UK's use of resources.

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Opera CEO Lars Boilesen predicts the future of the web

Opera CEO Lars Boilesen predicts the future of the web

Apps move to the web, no OS monopoly on the mobile, proprietary tech will die are some of the predictions.

At the recently held conference, Up North Web, Opera brought its top executives to brief journalists from 18 countries around the world about the future of the web and how Opera is geared up for it. 
The conference started off with a keynote by Lars Boilesen, the CEO of Opera Software. Lars outlined what the web will be like in the future. Here are the predictions: 

1. All apps to become web-based 
The first prediction from Lars comes as no surprise, because that's how most apps have been moving for quite some time now. Earlier, most local or network applications were made accessible over the web. Now apps are being developed purely for the web. The plethora of app stores that have followed the success of Apple's App Store are a clear indication of this trend. Apps will therefore run irrespective of what OS you're running. 

2. No OS monopoly in mobile phones 
There will never be an OS monopoly among mobile phones. Today, there are several different Operating Systems that are available for mobile phones, and there's only one thing that can connect all of them together-the web. Therefore, according to Opera, the mobile OS market will remain healthy and vibrant with lots of different players. 

3. Proprietary technologies will die 
New open technologies will emerge that would be very easy to use, such as HTML 5. CSS 3. etc. These technologies will replace proprietary tech. 

4. Mobile web to outgrow desktop web 
By 2015, the mobile web will outgrow the desktop web. Most new users will come from fast-growing markets, such as India, and a majority of them will connect from their mobile phones. According to Opera, as of Sep 2010, 71 million people around the world are using Opera Mini, which is a web browser for mobile phones. 

5. The OS will become irrelevant 
For most people, the OS will become irrelevant, especially on the mobile phones. That's because people don't care about the OS, but how they access their applications on their device. 

6. All you'll need is a web browser ten years from now 
Ten years from now, your device will only need a web browser. This web browser will do everything you need, including graphics, playing games, and managing your entire existence on the web. 

'In the end, all people want to do is share ideas', said Lars. 'That's why Opera was created', he concluded. 

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1,000 cyber attacks on Games, most from China

1,000 cyber attacks on Games, most from China

Six cyber networks of the Delhi Commonwealth Games faced at least 1,000 “potential” attacks in the 12 days of the event that concluded last night — that is, more than three attacks every hour.

Roughly three-fourths of these attempts to breach and paralyse the Games networks originated from China, experts in the Cyber Crisis Management Group (CMG), which was monitoring the networks round the clock, told The Indian Express.

A clutch of attacks — between October 3 and October 5 — originated in Pakistan. Some attempts to penetrate CWG circuits were made from Mumbai as well, top sources in the CMG said.

“In all, our systems detected around 5,000 incidents, about 20 per cent of which could be described as potential attacks. Many were ‘denial-of-service’ attacks, which, if successful, would jam entire networks. But none of these attempts succeeded in penetrating even the first of the three layers of cyber security systems that we had installed,” said a member of the CMG.

The CMG, which operated from an out-of-bounds Cyber Command Centre set up on the seventh floor of the Games Organising Committee (OC) headquarters, included cyber experts from the intelligence agencies, Delhi Police and the Government of India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

The cyber security infrastructure which successfully detected, identified and neutralized the attacks was set up in only two months after Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar authorized the cyber CMG headed by CERT-In chief Gulshan Rai, who was empowered to disable sections of the CWG computer networks in case of a serious cyber attack.

The six networks, including those of Games data, security, venues, Internet services and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), were linked to the Command Centre, which constantly monitored over 3,000 computers, 3,000 CCTVs and 1,800 network switches. A special software detected and mapped all “deviant behaviour” on logs, which were examined by the CMG several times a day.

On October 13, National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon visited the Command Centre and reportedly hailed the cyber security initiative as a huge success. While declining to discuss the specifics of the system, Harsh Kumar, the OC’s head of technology, said, “The success of our system was that officials from all agencies such as the NTRO (National Technical Research Organisation) and IB, as well from vendors like MTNL, ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India Ltd) and TCIL (Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd) worked together as a group.”

Added Anil Chowdhary, the OC’s Adviser, Security, “The cyber security systems used in the CWG are now a model which can be replicated in major national networks, and used for cyber security in critical sectors such as railways, aviation and telecommunications.”

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