WAN optimisation and the Facebook patent
Play audio version
If you think the National Broadband Network will automatically speed up everything on the internet, you're wrong. Inefficiencies in TCP/IP network protocols mean a lot of time will still be spent setting up application-layer data streams.
In this week's Patch Monday, Steve Dixon from Riverbed Technology uses simple-to-understand analogies to explain the problem, and why it can't be solved just by adding more bandwidth. The magic word is "latency".
WAN optimisation, a technology for which Riverbed is just one provider, can sometimes produce significant speed-ups and reduce data transfer needs.
On another topic, Facebook was awarded a patent on 23 February for "Dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network" for social networking websites.
Are MySpace and LinkedIn under threat? Should Google be quaking in its boots over a threat to Buzz?
Kimberlee Weatherall, who teaches intellectual property law at the University of Queensland, puts the controversial issue of software patents into perspective.
Plus we have Stilgherrian's idiosyncratic look at the week's IT news headlines.
To leave an audio comment, Skype to stilgherrian, or phone Sydney 02 8011 3733.