http://www.daniweb.com/forums/ Tech support, programming, web development, and internet marketing community. Forums to get free computer help and support. en-US Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:05:03 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.daniweb.com/alphaimages/misc/rss.jpg http://www.daniweb.com/forums/ http://www.daniweb.com/news/story248080.html Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:28:16 GMT Hewlett-Packard is scrambling to respond to an issue brought up by a Dec. 10 YouTube video demonstrating that the facial tracking software used in some of its laptops doesn't recognize black people.

HP responded to the issue yesterday in its blog, and it's starting to go viral today.

In the light-hearted but pointed video, black "Desi" and white "Wanda" show how the software tracks Wanda but not Desi, even though they're in the same room, at the same angle, with the same lighting. The tracking works when Wanda enters the frame, and stops working when Desi enters.

A mortified HP blamed the problem on insufficient contrast between the eyes and the skin of the upper cheek and nose. "We believe that the camera might have difficulty “seeing” contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting," HP said, referring people to information about optimum lighting for facial-tracking software.

Meanwhile, the company is pledging to work on the problem with its partners. ]]> Social Media and Online Communities slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread248080.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story247325.html Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:18:42 GMT The federal government today made (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/vice-president-biden-kicks-72-billion-recovery-act-broadband-program) the first awards aimed toward improving broadband access in the U.S. In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the... The federal government today made the first awards aimed toward improving broadband access in the U.S.

In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus package, Congress appropriated $7.2 billion for broadband grants, loans, and loan guarantees to be administered by the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The deadline for applications for the first round was earlier this year.

At an event at Impulse Manufacturing in Dawsonville, Georgia, with Governor Sonny Perdue (R-GA), Vice President Joe Biden announced an initial $183 million investment in eighteen broadband projects benefiting seventeen states, which has already been matched by more than $46 million in public and private sector capital, the White House said.

The following Middle Mile awards were made through the Department of Commerce:

• GEORGIA: North Georgia Network Cooperative, Inc., $33.5 million grant with an additional $8.8 million in matching funds to deploy a 260-mile regional fiber-optic ring to deliver gigabit broadband in the North Georgia foothills.
• MAINE: Biddeford Internet Corp. (d.b.a. GWI), $25.4 million grant with an additional $6.4 million in matching funds to build a 1,100-mile open access fiber-optic network extending to the most rural and disadvantaged areas of the state of Maine, from the Saint John Valley in the north, to the rocky coastline of downeast Maine, to the mountainous regions of western Maine.
• NEW YORK: ION Hold Co., LLC, $39.7 million grant with an additional $9.9 million in matching funds to build 10 new segments of fiber-optic, middle mile broadband infrastructure, serving more than 70 rural communities in upstate New York and parts of Pennsylvania and Vermont.
• SOUTH DAKOTA: South Dakota Network, LLC, $20.6 million grant with an additional $5.1 million in matching funds to add 140 miles of backbone network and 219 miles of middle mile spurs to existing network, enabling the delivery of at least 10 Mbps service to more than 220 existing anchor institution customers in rural and underserved areas of the state.

The following Public Computer Center awards were made through the Department of Commerce:

• ARIZONA: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, $1.3 million grant with matching funds of $320,000 to enhance existing facilities in more than 80 public libraries throughout the state. The project expects to deploy more than 1,000 computers.
• MASSACHUSETTS: City of Boston, $1.9 million grant with matching funds of $477,000 to expand computer and Internet capacity at the city’s main library and 25 branches, 16 community centers, and 11 public housing sites.
• MINNESOTA: Regents of the University of Minnesota, $2.9 million grant with matching funds of $741,000 to enhance broadband awareness and use for residents in four federally-designated poverty zones in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
• WASHINGTON: The Inland Northwest Community Access Network (Tincan), $1.3 million grant with matching funds of $753,000 to establish three new public computer centers and expand 14 existing centers throughout Spokane’s poorest neighborhoods to serve more than 5,000 additional users per week.

The following Sustainable Broadband Adoption awards were made through the Department of Commerce:

• NEW MEXICO: New Mexico State Library, $1.5 million grant with an additional $591,000 in matching funds to increase broadband adoption and promote computer literacy and Internet use.
• WASHINGTON: The Inland Northwest Community Access Network, $981,000 grant with an additional $728,000 in matching funds to increase broadband adoption through basic and advanced computer skill training, as well as community-based outreach campaigns to highlight the benefits of broadband for vulnerable populations in Spokane.

The following Last Mile and Middle Mile awards were made today through the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

• ALASKA: Anchorage, Rivada Sea Lion, LLC, $25.3 million grant with $6.4 million of leveraged funds; 4G high-speed broadband internet service availability to more than 9,000 unserved locations in a 90,000 square mile area where these Southwestern Alaska inhabitants are living at subsistence level.
• HAWAII: Big Island Broadband/Aloha Broadband, Inc., $106,503 loan with matching funds of $87,405 to bring broadband services to an unserved area in the northern part of the islands where there are nearly 600 residents and businesses.
• COLORADO/NEBRASKA: Peetz, Colorado, Peetz Cooperative Telephone Co., $1.5 million grant; expansion of existing infrastructure utilizing a combination of technologies. This project will make broadband service available to as many as 550 locations in the service area.
• MICHIGAN: The Chatham Telephone Company, $8.6 million grant to bring high speed DSL broadband service to remote, unserved businesses and households within its rural territory; service that is comparable to the DSL service provided in its more populated areas.
• NEW HAMPSHIRE: Bretton Woods, The Bretton Woods Telephone Company, $985,000 grant for 20 Mbps two-way broadband service to all potential customers and stimulate tourism in the area to substantially improve the local economy. This Fiber to The Premise service will be available to more than 400 locations.
• NEW YORK: Potsdam, Slic Network Solutions (Nicholville Telephone) a grant of $4.3 million and loan of $1.1 million for a 136-mile fiber optic network reaching into five towns in rural Franklin County. This all-fiber network will deliver broadband voice, and IPTV services to remote rural areas. The network will offer service to more than 6,500 locations.
• OHIO: North Central Ohio Rural Fiber Optic Network, Consolidated Electric Cooperative, $1,034,413 grant and $1,399,499 loan; and matching funds of $1,225,000. The funding is integral to a smart grid initiative and broadband service based on an open-connectivity fiber optic backbone network.
• OKLAHOMA: Southeast Oklahoma, The Pine Telephone Company, $9.5 grant with an additional $4.6 million in private funds to provide services to an entirely remote, rural, unserved and severely economically disadvantaged community.

An additional $1.8 billion will be made available on a rolling basis over the next 75 days.

The White House also issued a report, Recovery Act Investments in Broadband:
Leveraging Federal Dollars to Create Jobs and Connect America, with more details about the goals of the overall programs, as well as how the projects announced today were intended to support those goals. ]]> Domains and DNS slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread247325.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story244557.html Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:55:21 GMT An increasing number of cities in the United States and Canada are releasing data to developers to use in applications. While regions have released geographic information system (GIS) data for some time, such data required complicated software to use. Cities are now releasing all kinds of data,... An increasing number of cities in the United States and Canada are releasing data to developers to use in applications.

While regions have released geographic information system (GIS) data for some time, such data required complicated software to use. Cities are now releasing all kinds of data, some of them as simple as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

In October, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom required that City departments make all non-confidential datasets under their authority available on DataSF.org. Dozens are available, ranging from city surveys, election statements and ballot measures, and performance measures, as well as a great deal of GIS data.

New York has a similar program called the New York Data Mine, while the District of Columbia's is called the Data Catalog. Portland announced such an initiative in September.

In Canada, Toronto has also made a great deal of city data available, while Vancouver has announced its intention to do so.

Such initiatives enable developers -- not just for computers, but also for smart phones such as the iPhone -- to say "there's an app for that" regarding all sorts of city services, including mashups between them. New York is having a contest to develop interesting applications, while San Francisco has posted a showcase of interesting apps online.

The other advantage, notes the New York Times in an article about the phenomenon, is that if third parties are developing such applications, the cities themselves don't have to. ]]> eCommerce slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread244557.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story244260.html Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:28:21 GMT The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed suit (http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/social_network/social_networking_FOIA_complaint_final.pdf) against a number of government agencies for refusing to disclose their policies for using social networking sites for investigations, data-collection, and... The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed suit against a number of government agencies for refusing to disclose their policies for using social networking sites for investigations, data-collection, and surveillance.

The EFF is working with the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. The Samuelson Clinic made more than a dozen Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests on behalf of EFF to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies, asking for information about how the government collects and uses social media information. Several agencies did not respond, which led to the lawsuit.

Agencies named in the lawsuit include the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Stories cited by the EFF in the lawsuit included law enforcement searches in social media sites for evidence of underage drinking, the release of court records, a man arrested for alerting protesters to FBI agencies via Twitter, and a person accused of bank fraud who posted information on Facebook about living it up in Mexico. ]]> Social Media and Online Communities slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread244260.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story242640.html Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:52:39 GMT Keeping the Internet safe for satire, the World Intellectual Property Organization ruled that the domain name glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com was not a violation of the conservative political commentator's intellectual property.

The WIPO ruling "dismissed Beck's argument that Internet users could be confused by the domain name and its accompanying Web site," noted an NPR article. "'Even a 'moron in a hurry,'" read the decision, quoting Eiland-Hall's attorney, "would not likely conclude that Complainant sponsored, endorsed or was affiliated with the website addressed by the disputed domain name.""

Indeed, in an excellent example of the Streisand Effect, Beck's September lawsuit actually brought more attention to the website, noted the site's founder, Isaac Eiland-Hall, in a letter to Beck upon the WIPO's decision.

"It bears observing that by bringing the WIPO complaint, you took what was merely one small critique meme, in a seas of internet memes, and turned it into a super-meme," Eiland-Hall said. "Then, in pressing forward (by not withdrawing the complaint and instead filing additional briefs), you turned the super-meme into an object lesson in First Amendment principles."

The point of the website -- riffing upon an August, 2008, joke that was itself a reference to a joke about comedian Bob Saget -- was to mock Beck's rhetorical style by accusing him of something that, as former president Lyndon Johnson would have said, the b*****d hadn't denied.

Upon making his point and winning the case, Eiland-Hall then gave possession of the site to Beck. It has now been taken down, though the content is still available. ]]> Domains and DNS slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread242640.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story242331.html Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:16:49 GMT I was pretty sure I wasn't the only person who cooked Thanksgiving dinner in front of, not a propped-up cookbook, but a laptop.

It turns out the New York Times agrees. In fact, the paper did an analysis of search terms by region and by time, to see what conclusions could be drawn.

First of all, many more people are using the Internet than they used to. In fact, the day or two before Thanksgiving is cooking sites' equivalent of Black Friday for cybershopping sites; for example, Allrecipes.com builds server capacity for the day before Thanksgiving, then uses only half of it the rest of the year. Similarly, Google searches for Thanksgiving recipes have climbed steadily, doubling from 2007 to 2008, the article indicated.

Even the venerable Butterball hotline has switched to Twitter.

Second, people search for different types of recipes depending on the time of day. "At Allrecipes.com, pie searches got the most action on Wednesday morning," the Times said. "But by 10 a.m., people began earnest hunts for sweet potato casserole and stuffing recipes. By noon, 100,000 people had searched for mashed potato recipes. The real outlier is gravy. If this Thanksgiving Day is anything like last year’s, most searches will slow by 10 a.m. But not gravy. That vexing cook’s kryptonite should peak about 3 p.m."

People also do different searches depending on where they are. In the Southeast, it's broccoli casserole. In North Carolina, it's sweet potatoes. In Mississippi, the second-most popular pie is pecan, while in Wisconsin, it's apple. And in the Midwest, it's cheese balls. "Do people in Indiana just forget how to make it each year, or are cheese balls winning new converts?" the article wondered.

I have to admit, though, that I didn't do any online searching this year. I use the same recipes I've used for several years -- which, it is true, I Googled in the first place (except for the pie crust recipe, which came from my mom) -- that I store on the computer in a single Word file, along with the canonical ingredient list for the grocery store. ]]> Pay-Per-Click Advertising slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread242331.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story241724.html Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:35:31 GMT Thinking of looking for a flu shot while you're out shopping this weekend but don't know where to look?

There's an app (Google Maps) for that. Type in a location and it will show you locations in the area that offer flu shots, as well as their times -- and it will differentiate between seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines, in case you need one and not the other.

The application isn't perfect. It seems to focus primarily on commercial providers of flu vaccines, such as drugstores, supermarkets, and department stores. It doesn't, however, provide information on vaccination clinics offered by local health districts -- though it does provide the name of the nearest health district, a link to flu information on its website, and suggests that users call the district for more information. It also doesn't seem to include medical providers such as doctors and clinics, unless, coincidentally, the doctors in all the cities I checked were out.

Its geographic range also appears to be fairly small; checking my own town found nothing, but didn't show possibilities in larger cities just 20 minutes away. There also doesn't seem to be a way to widen the range of the area in which the application looks.

But, it's a start, it's better than nothing, and if a particular area doesn't have commercial vaccine providers, users can get in contact with the area health district to get more information. ]]> Pay-Per-Click Advertising slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread241724.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story241469.html Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:47:33 GMT Ever wanted to see the International Space Station but didn't know when or how to look?

There's an app (Twitter) for that.

Start following @twisst and using the information in your profile, it will let you know when the International Space Station is scheduled to pass by you.

"So, every time the International Space Station is coming, Twisst sends the follower an alert throught Twitter," the website said. "It announces when ISS will pass, at the user's local time. Also Twisst tells whether it is a remarkable nice one or not - so how bright and how high the space station will be on that pass."

(The @twisst guys are from the Netherlands and some of the phrasing is a little odd. But it's better than my Dutch.)

The application doesn't yet use the recently announced Twitter geocoding feature, partly because the application predates the feature and partly because the majority of users have the geocoding feature turned off, a company representative said.

"ISS will cross the sky at your location at [time]! more details: http://twisst.nl/17460" is reportedly the message.

Unfortunately, I have to say reportedly, because although my local news showed the ISS passing overhead in my area last night -- they had film and everything -- @twisst didn't tell me. However, it's supposed to go by again tomorrow, so I'm willing to give it another chance.

@twisst currently has nearly 25,000 followers. ]]> Social Media and Online Communities slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread241469.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story240891.html Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:36:58 GMT In 1968, a teacher named Jane Elliott (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott) performed a seminal experiment with her class of third-graders. Wishing to teach them about prejudice, she told them that kids with blue eyes were superior to those with brown eyes, gave the blue-eyed kids all sorts... In 1968, a teacher named Jane Elliott performed a seminal experiment with her class of third-graders. Wishing to teach them about prejudice, she told them that kids with blue eyes were superior to those with brown eyes, gave the blue-eyed kids all sorts of privileges, and made the brown-eyed kids second-class citizens. Soon enough, the kids had internalized the differences, with the blue-eyed kids picking on the brown-eyed ones.

Now, students across Canada and the U.S. have taken it upon themselves to set up a similar scenario, except with prejudice against redheaded kids, inspired by a four-year-old South Park episode.

Four redheaded children in Los Angeles-area schools were attacked on Friday, based on a Facebook group declaring it to be "Kick a Ginger Day," according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, while two dozen children in an Ontario, Canada, school were suspended after a similar incident and other students in the Vancouver area reported being kicked as many as 80 times during the day.

In the U.S., it was not considered to be a hate crime, but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are considering classing it as such.

Facebook has since taken the group down, saying it had not been aware of it, but a cached version indicated that it had more than 4,500 fans.

In fact, at this point there are now eleven pages and more than 180 groups, the vast majority of which were purportedly against Kick a Ginger Day.

What was particularly interesting about Elliott's experiment is when she turned the tables and said that, actually, brown-eyed kids were superior to blue-eyed kids. While the kids fairly quickly managed to switch their social positions, the brown-eyed kids didn't treat the blue-eyed kids as badly as they'd been treated. ]]> Social Media and Online Communities slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread240891.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story240535.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:50:46 GMT If you've ever had Google Maps literally send you up the river or down a sidewalk, you may have wondered whether the company ever actually sees the areas it maps.

Now, it does, through an increasing number of volunteers who make corrections and add more detail to maps, according to an article in the New York Times.

Google has stopped using commercial databases such as Tele Atlas, choosing instead to use freely available government databases, as well as input from users. "[W]e've worked directly with a wide range of authoritative information sources to create a new base map dataset," according to the Google Earth and Maps blog. "In our experience, these organizations that create the data do the best job of keeping it accurate and up-to-date.

Even Tele Atlas itself is starting to incorporate input from users, though it does not rely on it, the New York Times said. Beyond that, organizations such as WikiMapia and OpenStreetMap are open-source maps created by users.

However, users have been unable to determine the existence of a U.K. town called Argleton, though it is described in Google Maps, according to a different New York Times story.

"When Mr Bayfield reached Argleton – which appears on Google Maps between Aughton and Aughton Park – he found just acres of green, empty fields," the New York Times reported.

Paper maps often include minor imaginary streets to enable the map copyright holders to see whether their maps are being published elsewhere, and it is speculated that Argleton fulfills the same role for Google Maps, though Google said it was an error. However, though the company said the town would be removed, it is still there as of today. ]]> Pay-Per-Click Advertising slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread240535.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story240092.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:04:37 GMT We're already heard about people being fired for calling in sick and then posting on Facebook.

Now a woman has lost her insurance.

According to CBCNews, Nathalie Blanchard, 29, has been on leave from her job at IBM for the past year and a half after she was diagnosed with major depression. She was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from Manulife, her insurance company. When the payments stopped, she called the insurance company and was told she was "available to work, because of Facebook."

The insurance agent reportedly described several pictures Blanchard had posted, including ones showing her at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party, and at the beach — evidence that she is no longer depressed.

Blanchard said she had taken the vacation on her doctor's advice and that she had informed the company of the trip.

In addition, Blanchard said she didn't understand how Manulife accessed her photos, because her Facebook profile is locked and only people she approves can look at what she posts. Ironically, it was due to pressure from the Canadian government that Facebook recently revised its privacy policy. Online speculation is that one of the woman's coworkers at IBM may have turned her in.

The company confirmed that it uses the social networking site to investigate clients but said it would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook. ]]> Social Media and Online Communities slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread240092.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story239640.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:28:51 GMT Here's a switch. Instead of newspapers trying to protect the identities of the people posting to their websites, the newspaper is the one outing them.

As described by editor Kurt Greenbaum of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, someone posted a vulgar word in the paper's online commenting system, and re-posted it after a newspaper staffer deleted it.

"I deleted it, but noticed in the WordPress e-mail alert that his comment had come from an IP address at a local school," Greenbaum reported. "So I called the school. They were happy to have me forward the e-mail, though I wasn’t sure what they’d be able to do with the meager information it included."

The school managed to track down the offending (literally) poster, who turned out to be a school employee, and when confronted, the person resigned.

Since then, however, the incident has resulted in a great deal of discussion about whether Greenbaum acted responsibly, especially for a newspaper.

"[I]t's still troubling that a journalist with 27 years of experience didn't question whether it was wise to out one of the paper's readers -- a decision that certainly seems to violate the paper's own policies," noted The Daily Online Examiner. "The site's privacy policy states: "We will not share individual user information with third parties unless the user has specifically approved the release of that information. In some cases, however, we may provide information to legal officials.""

The blog went on to say that Greenbaum denied having revealed individual user information, and made fun of him for apparently not realizing what an IP address was.

"Am I the only one who thinks that doing this goes way beyond the normal course of editorial behaviour?" wrote media blogger Matthew Ingram. "[T]here is no way that I would contact someone’s workplace about a comment unless they had done something extremely egregious — such as making death threats, or repeatedly making abusive comments."

The Greenbaum case stands in stark contrast to other examples. Earlier this year, another news site fought a court order demanding that it reveal the identity of anonymous people posting to its website. Instead, the Maryland Court of Appeals reversed the lower-court ruling, and issued guidelines for how such requests should be made in the future. Another news aggregator site is fighting a similar attempt in Texas.

Several people have suggested that, in the future, Greenbaum's paper should moderate comments instead. ]]> Social Media and Online Communities slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread239640.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story239054.html Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:22:19 GMT A lawsuit over a website's publication of a celebrity threesome sex tape is provoking some thoughtful discussion about fair use.

Not to mention giving PBS, NPR, and the New York Times the opportunity to talk about sex tapes.

The tape consists of Grey's Anatomy actor Eric Dane and his wife Rebecca Gayheart, as well as Kari Ann Peniche -- a former Miss United States Teen beauty queen who was dethroned after posing for Playboy, went on a reality show to be treated for sex addiction, and reportedly is now a Hollywood madam -- engaged in various activities. The original tape is 12 minutes long; the website Gawker.com posted a four-minute excerpt with censorship covering various portions of the Grey's Anatomy star's, uh, anatomy.

"Hollywood sex tapes making their way to the Internet are nothing new," noted the PBS blog, written by Rob Arcamona, a second-year law student at The George Washington University Law School. Neither are lawsuits, though as it notes few cases go to trial. What is different about this lawsuit is that rather than using the usual criteria such as invasion of privacy or defamation of character, they claim that Gawker's publication of the video violates their copyright -- which they reportedly registered two days after the tape was posted online -- and filed a $1 million lawsuit.

Arcamona notes that Gawker is considering its publication as "fair use" because it is newsworthy. Factors under consideration, he said, are whether Dane and Gayheart intended to publish the tape at some point -- because the copyright holder has the right to determine the first time a work is published; whether four minutes of a 12-minute tape is longer than would constitute fair use; and whether any of the potential customers of such a video by Dane and Gayheart would still be interested in buying it after Gawker's publication.

In any event, it will be interesting to see how well this legal maneuver succeeds. ]]> eCommerce slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread239054.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story234801.html Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:50:02 GMT Calling social media sites a "productivity black hole," the UK IT services group Morse said that staff who use Twitter and other social networking sites while at work are costing UK businesses £1.38bn every year, according to the BBC.

More than half those surveyed said they used social networking sites during the working day for personal use, with the average being 40 minutes per week on these sites. While this doesn't sound like much, it adds up to almost a week a year, Morse said.

Other responses from the study, which surveyed 1,460 people:

• More than three-quarters of respondents said their employer had not given them specific guidelines with regards to using Twitter.
  
• A third of workers said they had seen sensitive information posted on social networks.
  
• 84 percent said they felt it should be up to them what they posted online.

]]> Social Media and Online Communities slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread234801.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story234567.html Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:43:14 GMT The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously earlier this week to outsource its e-mail system to Google Inc., according to an article (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/10/city-council-votes-to-adopt-google-email-system-for-30000-city-employees.html) in the Los Angeles Times. The... The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously earlier this week to outsource its e-mail system to Google Inc., according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. The contract is worth $7.25 million and covers 30,000 employees.

In June, Washington, D.C. made a similar decision, signing a contract worth almost $500,000 for its 38,000 municipal employees to use Google's e-mail, spreadsheet and word- processing programs, giving them an Internet-based alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Office software, installed on computers, according to Bloomberg.

Interestingly, the chief technical officer responsible for the decision was Vivek Kundra, now Chief Information Officer of the United States. The White House recently decided to migrate its website from proprietary software to Drupal.

Los Angeles plans to complete implementation of the Google system by June and will begin with a pilot period during which a limited number of employees will test the system, the Times said. City law enforcement agencies including the Los Angeles Police Department will migrate to the new system once they are satisfied with the security and functioning of the system.

Los Angeles worked on the decision for nearly a year, where Google competed with other software vendors, including Microsoft. "Parties on all sides believe that if smaller cities see Los Angeles successfully transition to Google's cloud system, they may be more likely to follow suit," the Times said. ]]> Windows Software slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread234567.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story234021.html Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:52:07 GMT In addition to funding broadband projects (http://www.daniweb.com/news/story231771.html) in the states, particularly in rural areas, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus package, includes funds for collection of state-level broadband data... In addition to funding broadband projects in the states, particularly in rural areas, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus package, includes funds for collection of state-level broadband data, as well as state-wide broadband mapping and planning.

The project, which will also help create a national broadband map, is being managed by the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

The State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program, announced on July 1, is a competitive, merit-based matching grant program that will provide approximately $240 million in grants to assist states or their designees to develop state-specific data on the deployment levels and adoption rates of broadband services, the NTIA said. Awardees are required to contribute at least 20 percent non-federal matching funds toward project costs.

Each state could have only a single, eligible entity to perform the mapping. Applications for the program were accepted from July 14 to August 14.

On September 9, the NTIA announced that it had received applications representing all 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia. Fifty-two of the 56 states (or their designated entities) also submitted requests for broadband planning funds, typically about $500,000 each over a 5-year period, the NTIA said, which also released a list of the applicants.

Now, the NTIA is beginning to announce grant awards made to the states for mapping. On October 5, the NTIA announced the first grants:

• California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC): approximately $1.8 million
• Indiana Office of Technology (IOT): approximately $1.3 million
• Rural Economic Development Center, Inc. (e-NC Authority): approximately $1.6 million
• Vermont Center for Geographic Information (VCGI): approximately $1.2 million

The CPUC was also awarded $500,000 for the cost of broadband planning activities in California over four years, bringing its grant award total to approximately $2.3 million, and the e-NC Authority was awarded approximately $435,000 for the cost of broadband planning activities in North Carolina over five years, bringing its grant award total to over $2 million, the NTIA said.

On October 23, the NTIA announced a grant of approximately $1.4 million to fund broadband mapping and planning activities in West Virginia. In addition, the West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey will receive $185,000 for the cost of broadband planning activities in West Virginia over two years, bringing its grant award total to approximately $1.4 million.

Other states are waiting to hear responses.

The national broadband mapping project has come under criticism in recent months for bowing to industry pressure and planning to put less detail in the map. ]]> Domains and DNS slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread234021.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story233299.html Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:37:34 GMT The Associated Press reported (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iuRIVBTLUvW7823FC-fcfhvkSxHgD9BHLF180) this weekend that the official White House website (http://www.whitehouse.gov/) has been switched to using the open-source Drupal content management system Using open source... The Associated Press reported this weekend that the official White House website has been switched to using the open-source Drupal content management system

Using open source will result in improved security -- because more programmers will be looking for errors in the software -- as well as more quickly and less expensively updated, the AP said.

The White House site had been using technology held over from the administration of former President George W. Bush, but the staff had been working toward the transition since the inauguration. For example, the website that tracks stimulus spending, launched in February, was already built using Drupal.

Several other federal agencies, such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education, and the General Service Administration, are also said to be using Drupal.

However, modifications made by the White House staff, such as to improve security, have not thus far been given back to the Drupal community, noted Tim O'Reilly in his blog. "The source code for Drupal (and the rest of the LAMP stack) is indeed available, but the modifications that were made to meet government security, scalability, and hosting requirements have not yet been shared," he said. ]]> Linux Servers and Apache slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread233299.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story233045.html Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:57:08 GMT Two groups are working to set up a .gay top-level Internet domain, with plans for using some of the proceeds for registering sites in that domain to support gay causes, according to an article (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/competing-groups-press-for-a-gay-internet-suffix/) in the... Two groups are working to set up a .gay top-level Internet domain, with plans for using some of the proceeds for registering sites in that domain to support gay causes, according to an article in the New York Times.

While it can cost up to $400,000 to set up a new top-level domain, companies compete for control, because the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the development and management of the Internet’s unique identifiers, awards the registry rights to just one applicant for each new top-level domain, which can result in millions of dollars per year, the Times said.

Currently, the two groups are competing for the right to apply by each claiming to be more gay than the other. "The Dot Gay Alliance (dotgay.org), out of New York City, is being led by a longtime gay activist," the Times said. "And dotGay (dotgay.com) is being spearheaded by a heterosexual German man in Riga, Latvia, who has incorporated a company in San Francisco."

The Dot Gay Alliance points out that it is run by a gay man, while dotGay points out that it is based in San Francisco and that its head has experience setting up new top-level domains.

Neither of the for-profit groups has said what percentage of revenues it would commit for gay causes, though Joe Dolce, founder and executive director of the Dot Gay Alliance, spoke favorably of Al Gore's declaration that he would support a particular group's right to the .eco top-level domain -- where a similar fight is taking place -- only if half the proceeds went to environmental causes. ]]> Domains and DNS slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread233045.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story232782.html Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:52:58 GMT Twitter, Inc., has shut down 33 fake Twitter accounts created by Republicans using the names of Democratic state representatives, but fake websites using the Democrats' names are still up.

The story was reported in the Hartford Advocate, an alternative newsweekly.

State Republican Chairman Chris Healy told the paper that it was the Connecticut Republicans' idea.

Twitter announced earlier this year that it planned to verify the accounts of people such as public officials, after several cases of Twitter impersonations.

According to the paper, a Democratic legislative leader reported the accounts to Twitter, which replied, "A person may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse or deceive others. ... Impersonation is against our terms unless it is a parody. The standard for defining parody is, 'Would a reasonable person be aware that it's a joke?' Because this is not the case in your situation, we have removed the profile(s) from circulation."

Healy criticized the Democrats' response as "stopping free speech."

The fake web sites all use the same theme and basic design, and note at the bottom that they were "Paid for and Authorized by the Connecticut Republican Party, Jerry Labriola Jr. Treasurer." They are called "Meet Matt Lesser," "Meet Joe Aresimowicz," and so on, with the names of the 33 Democratic legislators.

The sites, as well as other articles about the issue, can be found with this web search. ]]> Social Media and Online Communities slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread232782.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story231771.html Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:03:48 GMT In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus package, Congress appropriated $7.2 billion for broadband grants, loans, and loan guarantees to be administered by the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications... In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus package, Congress appropriated $7.2 billion for broadband grants, loans, and loan guarantees to be administered by the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The deadline for submissions was earlier this year.

Now, you can search the database yourself to find what projects were submitted.

Endeavour Partners, a consulting company, downloaded the data to see what it could find out about the proposals.

First of all, $28 billion in requests was submitted for $7.2 billion in funding.

Other observations include:

• 2,186 applications were received
• The average application size was $12.7 million, but the median application size was $2.7 million
• Alaska had the largest total dollar amount requested, at $1.3 billion
• The largest application was from RADgov, a proposal to build and connect computer learning centers in underserved communities across the US for $938 million
• The top 10 states requesting the most money were California, Florida, Colorado, Alaska, New York, Texas, Virginia, Missouri, Maryland, and Illinois.
• The top 10 states requesting the most money per capita were Alaska, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Hawaii, Vermont, Colorado, New Mexico, and Maryland.

While a number of the top 10 per capita states actually are laggards in terms of broadband availability, "three of the top 10 states ranked on funding requests per capita are in the top 10 for actual broadband performance: Rhode Island, the District of Columbia, and Maryland," the group said. "These are all densely populated areas with meaningful broadband competition."

Awards for this first round are expected to be announced in November.

"It will be interesting to see how the process plays out – if awards will be made to a few large, pork barrel projects or if dollars will be carefully allocated to the rural states and areas where broadband economics break down and private sector competition is likely to remain weak," Endeavour concluded. ]]> Domains and DNS slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread231771.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story231517.html Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:40:16 GMT The other day I was on Facebook and a chat window popped up from a college friend of mine.

Bob: Hey there. How are u doing?
Sharon: ok. you?
Bob: Am not too good. Im in some kind of deep mess right now
Sharon: uh oh. what happened?

What "Bob" didn't know was that I was already suspicious of him by then.

Bob: Im stranded in London. I got mugged at a gun point last night!

Sure you did, "Bob."

This is a classic example of the "I've been mugged!" scam that's been going around Facebook chat. A friend starts a chat, tells how they've been mugged in some world city, and begs you to use Western Union to wire them some money.

(Poor Western Union. Does anyone use them for anything legitimate any more?)

Not to mention -- robbed at gunpoint? In England? Are you kidding?

But I played along.

Sharon: oh no!
Bob: All cash,credit card and phone was stolen!
Sharon: that's terrible!
Bob: Thank God i still have my life and passport
Sharon: yes, for sure
Bob: I need your urgent help Sharon!
Sharon: how can I help?

Then I waited for "the touch." Sadly, there were no more messages, and four minutes later "Bob" had signed off.

I got into email to contact "Bob" and let him know what was going on, only to find email from him in my mailbox, warning that he thought his account had been hacked and to ignore any chat messages from him.

What tipped me off is that I'd read articles about this method. But what tipped Bob -- the real one -- off?

"They tried to change my contact email address," Bob said. "FB sent a notice asking me to confirm the change. I had not initiated said change, so I knew something was up."

(Notice, too, the sorts of word choices and spelling the real Bob uses, compared to the fake one.)

What should you do if you're on the receiving end of one of these scams? Experts suggest that you try to confirm some piece of information that only the real person would know, such as the last time you saw each other or the names of their children or pets. And, of course, try to contact the real person to see if they're actually in London or wherever.

Obviously, also, pay attention if you get an unexpected message trying to change your email address. Bob took the additional step of emailing his friends, plus posting a message with his real location so people would be suspicious if they then heard he was in London.

Sadly, many of these scams are perpetrated outside the U.S., so it's tough to nail them. ]]> Network Security slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread231517.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story231276.html Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:35:28 GMT The 2008 presidential election featured a new emphasis on using the Internet, ranging from raising money to advertising to getting support.

It's still going on. Facebook, in particular, due to the ease in which people can set up affinity groups, is proving to be a new source of online activism, according to a recent article.

"Facebook’s features, such as the ability to add real-world events to a group or fan page, the ability to send a message to up to 5,000 members on a group page and the built-in discussion boards, make it an all-in-one stop for the connected protester," the article said.

It's also expected that, while the Federal Elections Commission ruled in 2006 that campaign regulations do not apply to most Internet activity, except for paid political advertising on someone else's Web site, new rules on campaigning will be in effect by the 2010 election cycle, according to an AP article.

"When does a blog connected to a campaign need to disclose its allegiance?," the article asks. "Does a candidate's personal Facebook page need a disclaimer if it is updated by a staffer? Can a campaign-related tweet — a message posted on social media site Twitter — even be regulated?" Another example cited in the article was whether Internet advertising -- such as pop-up ads whenever someone Googles an opponent -- need the sort of "Paid for by..." disclaimer that printed ads require.

Ironically, however, a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project called Civic Engagement Online found that the Internet hasn't much changed the political landscape.

"Contrary to the hopes of some advocates, the internet [sic] is not changing the socio-economic character of civic engagement in America," said Aaron Smith in the report. "Just as in offline civic life, the well-to-do and well-educated are more likely than those less well off to participate in online political activities such as emailing a government official, signing an online petition or making a political contribution."

However, this may change in the future, Smith said. It is "not inevitable that those with high levels of income and education are the most active in civic and political affairs," he said. "In contrast to traditional acts of political participation -- whether undertaken online or offline -- forms of engagement that use blogs or online social network sites are not characterized by such a strong association with socio-economic stratification." ]]> Social Media and Online Communities slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread231276.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story227496.html Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:50:39 GMT A company that has been attempting to obtain licensing fees from adult companies, as well as other providers such as Internet radio stations and leading satellite and cable companies such Echostar, DirectTV, Time Warner Cable, and CSC Holdings, Inc., has had its patent thrown out... A company that has been attempting to obtain licensing fees from adult companies, as well as other providers such as Internet radio stations and leading satellite and cable companies such Echostar, DirectTV, Time Warner Cable, and CSC Holdings, Inc., has had its patent thrown out by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Acacia Research's patent on streaming media technology had been targeted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as part of its Patent Busting Project for being overly broad. "Laughably broad patent would cover everything from online distribution of home movies to scanned documents and MP3s," the EFF described it.

The company systematically acquired a number of patents on streaming media, with an eye toward making money on licensing fees, according to a 2003 CNET article.

"The company's digital media strategy began in earnest several years ago," the article said. "It had determined that it owned about a third of the patents it needed to mount a licensing strategy for Web streaming, and its attorneys spent considerable time researching the rights held by another set of companies that Acacia ultimately purchased in 2001. By the time Acacia finished, it owned five U.S. patents and 17 international patents dating back to 1991."

Acacia started with the adult website market. "The case reaches all the way back to 2002, when Acacia began sending out media packets to online adult companies asserting that the companies were violating patents associated with its Digital Media Transmission technology, which Acacia claimed covered virtually any manner of transmitting and receiving digital and audio content over the Internet," according to an article in XBIZ Newswire. "Although Acacia was able to secure settlements from a number of adult companies, other companies fought back, and eventually coalesced into the united Adult Defense Group effort, spearheaded by Homegrown Video parent company New Destiny Internet Group."

In 2003, the company began targeting Internet radio providers, and obtained licensing fees from a number of them, including Radio Free Virgin, the online music division of Richard Branson's Virgin corporation.

In 2004, it moved on to colleges and universities, sending letters demanding licensing agreements of a minimum of $5,000 to more than 100 of them.

The company has not yet commented but is expected to appeal the ruling. ]]> eCommerce slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread227496.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story226914.html Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:57:05 GMT GovLoop, an online social network for government workers that was started by a federal worker, has been sold to GovDelivery Inc., a venture-backed government communications platform, with GovLoop founder Steve Ressler as its head of social networking. Terms of the sale were not disclosed... GovLoop, an online social network for government workers that was started by a federal worker, has been sold to GovDelivery Inc., a venture-backed government communications platform, with GovLoop founder Steve Ressler as its head of social networking.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The service currently has about 20,000 members, and Ressler would like to increase it to 100,000, he told the Wall Street Journal.

GovDelivery is "a supplier of government-to-citizen email and wireless communication systems (mostly for mass notification) to state and local but also to some federal agencies," according to Gartner government analyst Andrea DiMaio. However, noting that government users are now allowed to use mainstream services such as Facebook (though not Twitter), he wondered in his blog how much relevance GovLoop would continue to have -- comments that Ressler himself agreed with. "I see the future of GovLoop as a “knowledge network” for government – a place where government people can go to get their questions answered to do their job better," he said. "That can be asking a question on their government career, on a niche topic like how to implement a wiki, or a broad scope like talking about the future of cloud in government." ]]> Social Media and Online Communities slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread226914.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story226660.html Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:26:06 GMT In its ongoing effort to become the coolest city in the U.S., the mayor of Portland, Oregon, is going to attempt tomorrow night to make it an "open source city," making its data as open as possible while respecting privacy, and buying open source applications when possible.

If passed by the City Council, Mayor Sam Adams' proposal will have the following steps:

"a. Enter into agreements with our regional partners to publish and maintain public datasets that are open and freely available while respecting privacy and security concerns as identified by the City Attorney;
b. Develop a strategy to adopt prevailing open standards for data, documents, maps, and other formats of media;
c. Organize a regional contest to encourage the development of software applications to collect, organize, and share public data;
d. Establish best practices for analysis of business requirements in software review and selection processes, identify existing commercial software systems with licenses that are scheduled to expire in the near future, and encourage the consideration of Open Source Software in the review, replacement and continual improvement of business solutions."

As for carrots, the city is also hoping to encourage the lucrative conference industry to come to Portland; the proposal also suggests promoting "Portland as a host city for leading Open Source Software conferences and related technology events, such as LinuxCon, Innotech, etc."

In addition, all formal technology related purchasing and contract opportunities will be offered to the open source community, according to the proposed resolution.

Adams first declared his intention of making Portland more open in June, during the Open Source Bridge conference. According to the Silicon Florist blog, this was a way of competing with Vancouver, B.C., Canada, which had announced in May its intention of doing the same thing. ]]> Linux Servers and Apache slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread226660.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story226442.html Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:23:54 GMT A poll on whether President Barack Obama should be assassinated, which was posted to Facebook on Saturday, has been taken down after an investigation by the Secret Service, according to NPR.

The poll consisted of a single question: 'should obama be killed? [sic]' with the choices yes, maybe, if he cuts my health care, and no, according to a screen capture of the poll.

The screen capture also reported that 387 people had responded, but that results were only available if a user approved the application, which has security implications. Reportedly, 339 people voted 'no.'

Facebook took down the entire application that allowed the user, who has not been named, to create the poll, NPR said. But according to the Los Angeles Times, the company didn't take the poll down til Monday, at which point 730 people had voted.

A blogger who had reported the poll to the Secret Service said they had received a call back, and were told that the Secret Service relies on users to report such incidents. Threatening the life of the president is a crime, the LA Times reported.

It is not known whether people who responded to the poll could be tracked down. ]]> Social Media and Online Communities slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread226442.html http://www.daniweb.com/news/story225576.html Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:29:08 GMT Idaho, where I live, likes to brag when it makes lists such as "best places to live," "best places to start a business," etc.

Now we've made another list: we're the most spammed.

According to MessageLabs, which was acquired by Symantec in November, the ten states with the highest percentage of spam are:
1 Idaho 93.8%
2 Kentucky 93.0%
3 New Jersey 92.8%
4 Alabama 91.9%
5 Illinois 91.6%
6 Indiana 91.0%
7 Massachusetts 90.9%
8 Pennsylvania 90.5%
9 Arizona 90.4%
10 (tie) Maryland, 90.3%
North Carolina and
New Mexico

The ten states (and territory) with the lowest percentage of spam are:
1 Puerto Rico
2 Montana
3 Alaska
4 Kansas
5 South Dakota
6 Tennessee
7 Vermont
8 (tie) West Virginia and Rhode Island
9 Wisconsin
10 (tie) Iowa and Florida

MessageLabs did not reveal figures for these areas except for Puerto Rico, at 83.1%.

Why Idaho? MessageLabs wasn't sure. It didn't indicate that Idahoans were particularly gullible about Nigerian princes nor particularly ignorant about anti-spam software (which, no doubt, MessageLabs and Symantec would be happy to sell them).

However, it did have some correlations to point out. "The areas that are subjected to the highest levels of spam are generally those locations that are populated with a higher density of small-to-medium sized businesses."

On the other hand, MessageLabs goes on to add, "Similarly, the least spammed places are often home to some of the largest companies."

Puerto Rico? Montana? Really?

MessageLabs also notes that the most-spammed industries are Marketing, Wholesale, Recreation, Engineering and Real Estate (how can they tell?), while the least spammed are Chemical and Pharmaceutical, followed by Agriculture, Public Sector, Transportation and Healthcare -- which is particularly odd because these least-spammed industries provide a large share of Idaho's employment.

Last year, Idaho was the 44th most-spammed state. In fact, the top three most-spammed states were among the ten least spammed states in 2008.

On the other hand, for all states, the difference between the most- and least-spammed states decreased from 15.1% in 2008 to 10.7% in 2009 -- making reports like this less and less relevant. ]]> Network Security slfisher http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread225576.html