On Thursday, 16th August 2007, the Skype peer-to-peer network became unstable and suffered a critical disruption. The disruption was initiated by a massive restart of our user’s computers across the globe within a very short time frame as they re-booted after receiving a routine software update.

The abnormally high number of restarts affected Skype’s network resources. This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact.

Normally Skype’s peer-to-peer network has an inbuilt ability to self-heal, however, this event revealed a previously unseen software bug within the network resource allocation algorithm which prevented the self-healing function from working quickly. Regrettably, as a result of this disruption, Skype was unavailable to the majority of its users for approximately two days.

Read full story from Skype’s heartbeat blog >

Update: If you rely on Internet calls you might want to check out one of Skype’s competitors, VoipStunt, so you’ll have a backup solution in case this ever happens again…

Stumbled across a great wine resource today. If you have an interest for the sweet “grape juice” then this site is really worth a visit.

Browse wines, write your own reviews or browse other peoples tasting notes from around the web. Discover wines that are similar to ones you’ve liked and where to buy them. Check out winery ratings when planning a wine tasting trip. And, take V2V on the road with our mobile features. Enjoy!

Site: Vino2Vino - visualizing the world of wine

Troy, N.Y. – Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new energy storage device that easily could be mistaken for a simple sheet of black paper.

The nano engineered battery is lightweight, ultra thin, completely flexible, and geared toward meeting the trickiest design and energy requirements of tomorrow’s gadgets, implantable medical equipment, and transportation vehicles.

Along with its ability to function in temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero, the device is completely integrated and can be printed like paper. The device is also unique in that it can function as both a high-energy battery and a high-power super capacitor, which are generally separate components in most electrical systems. Another key feature is the capability to use human blood or sweat to help power the battery.

Details of the project are outlined in the paper “Flexible Energy Storage Devices Based on Nanocomposite Paper” published Aug. 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Visit RPI for more info

Normally you would have to pay around $70 to get a copy of StarOffice, but as of last week it comes bundled with Google Pack.

StarOffice 8 is a full-featured office suite that contains a word processor, a spreadsheet tool, applications for presentations, databases, math formulas and drawing. It has support for most Microsoft Office formats (except for the formats introduced in Office 2007), but it can also export documents as PDF out of the box. It’s worth noting that StarOffice has a huge installer (more than 140 MB), so you should download it only if you have a fast/stable Internet connection.

Even though OpenOffice supports more languages I believe Google chose StarOffice because it includes more features and more pre maid graphics and layouts. Documentation and support are also better which makes the move from Microsoft Office easier. Google also made a distribution agreement with Sun 2 years ago.

Looks like Microsoft are facing some strong competition in the future…

Symantec Arms Consumers Against PC Hijackers with Norton AntiBot

CUPERTINO, Calif. – July 17, 2007 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the release of Norton AntiBot, the industry’s first targeted security solution to combat the growing botnet pandemic. Norton AntiBot is a real-time bot detection and removal solution for consumers. Norton AntiBot monitors PC applications and processes around-the-clock, offering an additional layer of protection that complements existing security solutions to protect PCs from unauthorized access and tampering.

Norton AntiBot will be available immediately from the Symantec online store at www.symantecstore.com for an estimated retail price of $29.99USD, which includes a one-year subscription to Symantec’s protection updates.

Symantec Security Response is seeing the number of bot-infected computers continue to rise. In Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat Report (Volume XI, March 2007) Symantec found that during the last six months of 2006, there were more than 6 million active bots which is approximately 30 percent more zombie computers than observed in the previous six-month period.

“Botnets are quickly becoming one of the most pervasive, dangerous, and aggravating classes of malware,” said Rob Enderle Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group. “These networks are increasingly managed by professional criminals using leading technology to steal consumer bandwidth and performance and use it to for tasks ranging from massive amounts of spam to outright identity theft. To mitigate this growing risk all of us should be looking at using defense in depth solutions like Norton AntiBot that include strong protection for these technically advanced bot nets.”

Norton AntiBot’s Proactive Detection and Removal Capabilities is only a complement to existing security solutions (anti virus and firewalls).