Google Must Be Prosecuted For Charging Non-US Users of Google Voice

Google Gmail offers a new Internet phone service if you have a Gmail Account. There is one thing about running such a service on the Internet; that is it costs nothing for the company providing the service to run. Users pay a local telephone company for access to the Internet from their homes and on their mobile phones. The connection goes through each country via local telephone companies servicing the internet and phone lines.

There is no charge for US Gmail users and a charge per call for those living in other countries. Though it is a small amount it is discriminatory. The Internet goes all around the world like a net. Access to this net is open to anyone. No country charges its population to access the net to other countries. The European furniture company Ikea has already been accused of cross-subsidization for charging different prices for the same products in different countries. The production and even distribution costs are much the same.

Google's discrimination against non-US citizens must be stopped. Legal action must be pursued. Such charging by Google is illegal unless it also charges US citizens. Please comment on this because this is really annoying and should not happen. Google is an international company not a US company.

★

Windows 8 Is A Disaster for Personal Computers

THE END OF THE ROAD FOR EASY WEB DESIGN

Windows 8 means more problems for web page designers. What Internet Explorer reproduces in Windows 8 on a personal computer is not what comes out on a tablet. Internet Explorer 10 is the worst culprit. Having IE10 built into Windows 8 with no possibility of going back to IE9 is definitely a nuisance. Text goes right off the background square. On a PC, fonts are either extended too long and go over the background square at the bottom, or there is a line gap under the full stop because text is too short.

Nearly all the other browsers reproduce correctly, except FireFox with the last word on some fonts extending to the next line. This is rare though. Obviously, the problem lies in the operating system itself which is designed specifically for tablets. Personal computers are only of secondary consideration.

There is a "war" going on in the US at the moment over how images will be shown on tablets and even mobile phones. The powers that be are in a battle with professional code writers over what system will be used. This wonderful image system is called Picture Fill. The font problem with Windows 8 will make the fight more complex.

Designers now have to put images onto a web page knowing that in some circumstances fonts may write over the image or go behind it. Windows 8 is being released far too early. It is not yet known whether the new coding will be in HTML5 or left for HTML6. Whichever way it goes Windows 8 will be obsolete.

The new code for Picture Fill put forward by designers has four images being uploaded to the server at four different pixel densities. This is for each image on the web page. The lowest size and pixel strength will be downloaded by small devices. High definition sites on personal computers will download the highest definition image version. This will definitely make download times longer for all systems, and take up more memory on servers.

Your $40 will be wasted on upgrading to Windows 8. The problems are countless. You cannot set up a network in your home because security turns off and prevents access to Windows Firewall. This blocks all attempts at accessing other devices. Many older versions of software keep shutting down despite compatibility settings. You have to give Microsoft your email address and your correct password as you are logged on at startup. They are surely going to look at your email

Stay with Windows 7. It is the last Windows system written exclusively for PCs.

★