Sep 6th, 2008 - No sooner had the echoes of “Sarah *who*?” faded than the blogosphere was on the job, showing that even for an unknown person from a remote area, there was plenty of readily accessible information available – and not only perhaps doing a better job of vetting than the McCain campaign itself had... (Read More)

Sep 2nd, 2008 - If you were one of the just seven people in the first half of the year who went to the Washington State Department of Transportation web page using free wifi from the rest areas along its highways, you're out of luck -- the state dropped the little-used service as of September 1. The state... (Read More)

Aug 26th, 2008 - A website purporting to encourage improved broadband Internet access in the U.S. runs the risk of undercutting its argument by playing games with statistics. www.speedmatters.org, a project of the Communications Workers of America, has released its second survey of broadband Internet speeds in... (Read More)

Aug 24th, 2008 - Both the Democratic and Republican national conventions -- scheduled for next week and the following week, respectively -- will feature major roles for bloggers, giving them the same access as traditional press. Hundreds of bloggers are slated to attend the Democratic convention in Denver -- 500... (Read More)

Aug 6th, 2008 - It's been a long-running joke that Republicans don't understand technology, what with United States Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) trying to describe the Internet as a "series of tubes" and President George W. Bush referring to "the Internets." However, a new generation of Republicans is not... (Read More)

Aug 1st, 2008 - If you sent out a Twitter or email message after Tuesday's Southern California earthquake, you had a lot of company. As is typical in technology-heavy California, the moderate earthquake generated a following seismic wave of Internet messages of people checking in with each other. In fact, one... (Read More)

Jun 17th, 2008 - Just weeks after EarthLink pulled out of a project to provide wireless Internet throughout the city of Philadelphia after the city refused to take over management of the network, a group of investors has agreed to run the project. According to the Philadelpha Inquirer, a group of investors... (Read More)

Jun 15th, 2008 - Lee Chubb was ticked off. As a year-round, 15-year resident of Ketchum, Idaho – the city associated with the tony Sun Valley ski resort, Chubb has watched a lot of efforts to over-develop the area in a way that would not only take away the small-town feel that he loved, but would end up hurting... (Read More)

May 27th, 2008 - The city of Santa Fe, N.M., is finding itself fighting a group that wants the city to ban wireless Internet signals from public buildings, claiming the signals are making them sick. The group, calling themselves "electro-sensitive," say they are allergic to the waves generated, and say that... (Read More)

May 19th, 2008 - It had such promise -- a wifi network, treated like a city utility such as water or sewer, providing broadband Internet to everyone in the city, anywhere in the city, for a low monthly price. Yet vendors in cities such as Portland, and even the municipal wireless flagship Philadelphia are... (Read More)

Aug 28th, 2008 - Why prebuying Google sponsored ads might be a bad idea. Google "lieberman mccain." Or, click here. The result, at least as of this writing? Sponsored Link Lieberman & McCain JohnMcCain.com/lieberman Senator Lieberman Joins McCain's Team. Learn Why You Should Join! (Read More)

Aug 27th, 2008 - With gas still hovering at $4 a gallon, the Arctic ice caps melting, and our waistlines expanding, walking is more important than ever. But how to figure out whether a particular home or work location is a good one for walking? Well, there's a way. www.walkscore.com is another one of those... (Read More)

Jun 30th, 2008 - ""I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it." -- Judge Potter Stewart, Supreme Court... (Read More)

May 21st, 2008 - Google told Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to pound sand Monday -- politely, of course -- after the Senator called on Google to remove all "Internet video content produced by terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda" from YouTube. "YouTube encourages free speech and defends everyone's right to... (Read More)

Aug 28th, 2008 - When one thinks about high-tech states, one typically thinks of places such as California and Massachusetts. But....Alabama? The Southern state was the only state government on CIO Magazine’s top 100 institutions for excellence in information technology. According to CIO, the state provides more... (Read More)

Aug 12th, 2008 - The state of Maine has found an innovative way to find funding to supports its technology industry – the state issued $50 million in bonds and just awarded $30 million in grants, with the remaining $20 million to be allocated this fall. Funding for the Maine Technology Asset Fund was arranged... (Read More)

Jul 31st, 2008 - Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama, swept to the role of presumptive nominee through support from fans on the Internet, is learning that the Internet can just as easily be mobilized against him, even after he has already voted on an issue. The issue is the Foreign Intelligence... (Read More)

Jul 29th, 2008 - In an example of throwing the bathwater out with the baby, a number of ISPs are dropping the alt.* hierarchy, or Usenet altogether, ostensibly to comply with a demand from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that they rid the Internet of child pornography. Some observers, including the... (Read More)

Jul 21st, 2008 - Sean Tevis needed 3,000 people willing to donate $8.34 to his campaign for the Kansas state legislature. Instead, he's up to 5,298 -- and still going. He did it with a single website in the style of XKCD, the geek comic strip that has replaced Dilbert on many office doors, and a simple... (Read More)

Jun 3rd, 2008 - Even on a slow day, I can have a three-way chat with two women at the same time -- Brad Paisley, Cooler Online But what if you work for the government? Particularly if you're a teacher? A number of teachers in Palm Beach County, Fla. -- some of them... (Read More)

Aug 19th, 2008 - Ever wondered how the U.S. diplomatic corps keeps track of all of its quickly changing information? Turns out, the same way all the rest of us do -- through Wikipedia. The diplomatic wikipedia, Diplopedia, is not available to the public, though examples of pages are included in a publicly... (Read More)

Jul 26th, 2008 - While the full story behind San Francisco city government computer engineer Terry Childs hasn't yet come out, one thing is certain: the mainstream media is ignorant about technology. Moreover, either the city government and prosecutors are deliberately painting things in as negative a light as... (Read More)

Jul 23rd, 2008 - Claiming he was protecting San Francisco city government's computer system from incompetent coworkers, computer engineer Terry Childs changed the system's passwords and then for more than a week refused to give them to anyone, even after being arrested. Childs was under four felony counts for... (Read More)

Jul 13th, 2008 - San Francisco is implementing a wireless network using transceivers on the ground that theoretically will help drivers find parking spaces in the congested city. The technology, called Streetline from the company of the same name, uses wireless transceivers glued on the street in front of each... (Read More)

Jun 25th, 2008 - Of course, it makes sense. After all, I'm following him (along with 43,485 people at this writing). But it still gave me a little thrill, a few minutes later, to get the message that he was now following me (along with the 42,084 other people he follows). Is it automatic somehow? Or does a campaign... (Read More)