finland

Spain mandates affordable broadband for all

Spanish officials said earlier this week that the government will require service providers to offer broadband with speeds of at least 1 Mbps at regulated rates to residents living anywhere in the country.

The Spanish telecommunications minister issued a statement Tuesday declaring that broadband would be added to the country's so-called "universal service," which guarantees reasonably priced telephone service to citizens, Reuters reported. The goal is to offer affordable broadband with speeds of at least 1 Mbps to residents by 2011.

To achieve this goal the Spanish government will require any service provider that gets universal service … Read more

BOL 1084: TI don't be a 8008

Calculator hackers have figured out how to run independent OSes on TI calculators. Unfortunately TI wants to stop them. Why? We have no idea. Also we play fast and loose with physics when discussing black holes and Higgs Bosons. We also totally redefined the word mint. In a bad way, unfortunately.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1084

Sidekick data restored? http://twitter.com/wcpreston/status/4848175078 http://twitter.com/ruv/status/4845969713

Wi-Fi is about to get a whole lot easier http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2009/tc20091013_683659.htm … Read more

Finland makes 1Mb broadband access a legal right

Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications has made 1-megabit broadband Web access a legal right, YLE, the country's national broadcasting company, reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, every person in Finland (a little over 5 million people, according to a 2009 estimate) will have the right of access to a 1Mb broadband connection starting in July. And they may ultimately gain the right to a 100Mb broadband connection.

Just more than a year ago, Finland said it would make a 100Mb broadband connection a legal right by the end of 2015. Wednesday's announcement is considered an … Read more

Inside CNET Labs 57: This is what we do...in Finland

We get off and running this week about 32-bit programming versus 64-bit programming. Dong exposes the huge differences between the two and the level of talent it takes to program in both. /sarcasm...

Then, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. As you all know, Dong and I are WoW players, so bear with us as we go overlong, discussing the ins and outs of the new WoW expansion. We're both extremely excited about the prospects of this, but Dong is just better at hiding his enthusiasm.

We move on to iPhone GPS apps for the 3G and 3GS. Apparently, they all … Read more

Finland massacre: YouTube provided early warning

YouTube this week handed authorities in Finland an opportunity to stop a mass killing.

After spotting several threatening videos allegedly posted to YouTube by student Matti Saari, Finnish police tracked down and questioned the 22-year-old man on Monday. Authorities there are now answering questions about why they freed Saari, who on Tuesday gunned down 10 classmates and then killed himself at the vocational school he attended.

The sick trend of school shootings continues: Columbine, Virginia Tech, and last November's Jokela High School Massacre, also in Finland. What was different this time was that police were in a position to … Read more

It's official. The Government is now reading your email

This week, Denmark was named the happiest country in the world.

Its capital was renamed Copinghaven.

However, just next door in Sweden, Google was one of the leaders in protesting a new law that was passed on June 18.

Unlike some laws, this one is simple:

"We, the Government, can read any email that comes into or out of our borders. We can listen in to phone calls too. Don't bother to tell us you don't like this law. As we've already read your dirgy emails and listened to your moaning phone calls. Just the ones … Read more

Finnish minister the latest politician sunk by texting

Following a recent trend of politicians embroiled in text message-related sex scandals, Finland's foreign minister is facing calls for his resignation Saturday after a tabloid published a suggestive text message he had sent to an erotic dancer, Reuters is reporting.

Ilkka Kanerva sent about 200 text messages to the 29-year-old dancer and at first said they were related to her performing at his 60th birthday party, Reuters says. But on Friday he admitted the messages weren't appropriate.

A Finnish paper quoted him as saying, "I would not present them in Sunday school, but they are not totally … Read more

Why is Finland Europe's technology leader? The prime minister explains

Although it's on the fringe of Europe geographically, Finland has for years been at the center of the continent's tech industry.

The country gave birth to cell phone leader Nokia and has emerged as a place where multinationals like to recruit and erect labs. The government and local entrepreneurs are now moving into clean technology.

It can be traced back to policies set up in the early 1980s, said Matti Vanhanen, the country's prime minister, during an interview with CNET News.com on Wednesday afternoon. The country saw the dawning of globalization and realized it would have … Read more