241 Posted Topics
 | As [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4304.html"]expected[/URL], Representative Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, has introduced [URL="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.2267:"]legislation[/URL] that would roll back a ban on Internet gambling enacted when Republicans led Congress. The legislation would allow the Treasury Department to license and regulate online gambling companies that serve American customers, according to the [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/us/politics/26cong.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimespolitics"]New York Times[/URL]. Under the current …  |
| | "Universal service" should encompass broadband Internet access in the same way that it originally encompassed telephone access, according to a new report from the Federal Communications Commission to Congress. The [URL="http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-291012A1.pdf"]report[/URL], [I]Bringing Broadband to Rural America: Report on a Rural Broadband Strategy[/I], is written by Michael Copps, acting chairman of … |
| | A [URL="http://sev.prnewswire.com/airlines-aviation/20090522/DA2167522052009-1.html"]study[/URL] conducted by American Airlines and Hewlett-Packard has found that frequent flyers would rather geek than eat, with more than 47 percent saying that airport wireless access was an important amenity, compared to about 18 percent who said food was. The purpose of the study was to help promote … |
| | The continuing saga of Craigslist vs. the state attorneys general took another turn, with South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster [URL="http://www.scattorneygeneral.org/"]contending[/URL] that the continued presence of ads for "erotic services" on the site constituted a criminal violation for which Craigslist management was personally responsible, and with Craigslist management firing back …  |
| | People are continuing to find new and interesting things to do with Twitter. One is [URL="http://www.we-love-the.net/Stweet/"]Stweet[/URL], a combination of Twitter and Google Map's Streetview that uses georeferencing. Select a city from the picklist (or enter another city at the bottom of the screen) and it'll show you the most recent … |
| | Along with a number of other changes brought forth by President Barack Obama’s administration, another one might be the re-legalization of online gambling -- particularly poker -- in the United States. Online gambling in the U.S. was made much more difficult, though not technically illegal, in 2006 by the Unlawful … |
| | The [I]New York Times[/I] is [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/technology/internet/29google.html?_r=1"]reporting[/URL] that the Justice Department is opening an antitrust investigation of Google’s settlement with authors and publishers over its Google Book Search service. In 2005, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed suit against Google, claiming that Google’s practice of scanning copyrighted … |
| | A mainstay of situation comedies is when one of the characters plays hooky at work to go do something else -- bowling, watching a ball game, going to the movies -- and gets caught. Never fails. Now there's a new wrinkle for them to try. [URL="http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE53N4HH20090424?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=22&sp=true"]Reuters[/URL] is reporting that a … |
| | Craig Newmark, the San Francisco-based founder of the Craigslist want-ad site, is [URL="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/25/craig-newmark-im-not-plan_n_191350.html"]reportedly[/URL] refusing pressure to shut down his site's Erotic Services section in light of an alleged murder where the victim advertised there, according to a story in the Huffington Post. Philip Markoff, a Boston University medical student, is … |
| | Though the swine flu just began hitting the news media on Friday or so, there's already a number of sites and ways to help you keep track of developments (and give you nightmares, frankly, but forewarned is forearmed). 1. A [URL="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=p&msa=0&msid=106484775090296685271.0004681a37b713f6b5950&ll=30.977609,-98.789062&spn=53.686525,85.78125&z=4"]Google Map[/URL] of reported swine flu cases. It's not perfect …  |
| | The embattled WiMAX communications standard is taking another hit as WiMAX vendor Clearwire Communications is the recipient of a class-action lawsuit by users contending that its service is [URL="http://clearwiresucks.com/blog/"]slow and unreliable.[/URL] While the lawsuit is not about Clearwire's WiMAX service specifically, [URL="http://newsroom.clearwire.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=214419&p=irol-overview"]Clearwire[/URL] is the main company providing WiMAX services in … |
| | Taser International, which makes electric stun guns, is [URL="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aR6xHcnBMn9M&refer=us"]suing[/URL] Linden Research Inc., the owner of the [URL="http://secondlife.com/"]Second Life[/URL] virtual environment, for selling unauthorized virtual versions of its product. The trademark infringement case claims that the online sales of virtual products are damaging the company’s reputation and hurting its sales. Second … |
| | The Department of Agriculture's Office of the Inspector General has issued a [URL="http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/09601-8-TE.pdf"]report[/URL] finding that the Rural Utilities Service continues to grant loans to areas that already have broadband service and to communities near major cities. For example, 77 percent of loans were said to have been made in areas … |
| | Amazon users this weekend noticed that a wide variety of books with gay and lesbian themes -- including [I]Heather Has Two Mommies[/I] and books on how to come out -- were reclassified as "adult" and consequently no longer given sales ranks, nor would they come up on search requests, even … |
| | Remember the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3821.html"]teenagers[/URL] getting charged with child pornography for taking revealing pictures of themselves with cell phones? They're fighting back. According to an [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26sextext.html?_r=1"]article[/URL] in the New York [I]Times[/I] by Sean Hamill, 17 students -- 13 girls and 4 boys -- accepted a plea bargain requiring them to attend 10-hour … |
| | The non-technical world is starting to understand the concept of Twitter -- which means that they're starting to try to control it. Courtrooms have [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4148.html"]already begun dealing[/URL] with jurors Googling, Facebooking, and Twittering their way through the case. Now, some courtrooms are starting to set regulations ahead of time. The … |
| | [URL="http://earth.google.com/"]Google Earth[/URL] now supports the use of historical imagery -- back to 1945 in some areas -- that lets users see how certain areas have changed over time. As described by [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_earth"]Wikipedia[/URL], Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographic information program that was originally called Earth Viewer, and … |
| | The digital generation brought up Googling, Wikipediaing, and Twittering their way through their lives is starting to have problems when it turns out they don’t see why they can’t do the same thing when they’re in a courtroom, according to the [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/us/18juries.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1"]New York Times[/URL]. In a recent case, it was … |
| | Remember [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3344.html"]last fall[/URL], when people were terrified that pedophiles were using Google Streetview to find parks and schools so they could more readily find their young victims? Apparently a California legislator has been listening to them, or someone like them. Last month, California Assemblyman Joel Anderson, R-El Cajon, introduced a … |
| | "Most Americans can easily find videos of water skiing squirrels on the Internet, but they’ll have less luck finding out whether their children's school buses and classrooms are safe, or if neighborhood gas stations are overcharging," said the Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information online. Results ranged from … |
| | The Maryland Court of Appeals has reversed a lower-court ruling that a website must reveal the names of anonymous posters during a defamation hearing, and has issued guidelines for how such requests should be made in the future. The court ruling laid out the following steps in its [URL="http://mdcourts.gov/opinions/coa/2009/63a08.pdf"]decision[/URL]: [LIST=1] … |
| | It wasn't that long ago that we were thrilled when politicians started using Twitter. Now we kinda wish they'd stop -- except for the one who has, it seems, actually stopped. President Barack Obama, who [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2689.html"]began Tweeting[/URL] during his campaign last summer, has fallen silent since Jan. 19 -- the …  |
| | A recent study shows that, while the consumption of online pornography doesn't vary a lot between states, the states with the highest rates are the ones that are more conservative and religious. [URL="http://people.hbs.edu/bedelman/papers/redlightstates.pdf"]The study[/URL], by Benjamin Edelman, assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, controls for the amount …  |
| | Though it hasn't gotten as much attention, one of the biggest recipients of largesse from President Barack Obama's stimulus package is the health care information technology industry. The bill requires utilization of electronic health care records for everyone in the U.S. by 2014, when only about 28 percent of health … |
| | 178 Web posters who thought they were anonymous are being [URL="http://www.connordemond.com/LESHER-OMEGA_PETITION.pdf"]sued[/URL], and the website where they made the offending posts has been ordered to release information to help identify them. A couple, Mark and Rhonda Lesher, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman, and the websites for [URL="http://www.topix.com/forum/city/mckinney-tx"]McKinney[/URL], [URL="http://www.topix.com/forum/city/clarksville-tx"]Clarksville[/URL], and … |
| | His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been booted from Twitter after the social networking service said an account set up in his name was by an impersonator. The account, @OHHDL -- for The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama -- launched over the weekend and gained more than 20,000 … |
| | Remember the Idaho legislator who wanted to outlaw anonymous blogging? He’s back. The good news is, Representative Steve Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, no longer is trying to [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3662.html"]outlaw anonymous blogging[/URL]. According to Jared Hopkins in the Magic Valley [URL="http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2009/02/06/news/local_state/154433.txt"]Times- News[/URL], Hartgen told the Idaho House State Affairs Committee that he had … |
| | Long, long ago, when the net was flat and only geeks knew how to register domain names, a few savvy people started signing themselves up to own domain names like "www.mcdonalds.com," with the thought that, someday, McDonald's Corp. might want to be on the Internet and would offer them oodles … |
| | As a sign of how mainstream social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are, people are starting to wring their virtual teeny hands about the proper etiquette around various situations. Do romantic partners get veto power on Facebook and Twitter friends? What's appropriate fundraising behavior for politicians? Should you … |
| | A government is rolling out a wireless network, starting with 18 cities, using WiMAX technology that supports mobile networking, for $30 a month. The real news is where it is: Libya. WiMAX, based on similar technology to cell phone networks, offers wider coverage than is possible using wifi. Like wifi, … |
| | President Barack Obama will be able to continue to use a personal digital assistant like the Blackberry he used during the campaign, which naturally required security improvements. But more important, the new administration has agreed that any messages he sends through the device will be subject to the Presidential Records … |
| | Prince Harry is now single. The [URL="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ifldrouFoXOW3dAwmD8W8xNz5MSgD95UV8N04"]Associated Press[/URL] is reporting that Britain's News of the World tabloid says Chelsy Davy, who has been dating the heir to the British throne for five years, announced the end of her relationship with him by changing her status on Facebook to: "Relationship: Not … |
| | A recent report from the [URL="http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Broadband%20Barriers.pdf"]Pew Internet & American Life Project[/URL] suggests that even if broadband Internet is made more widely available in the U.S., 9% of adults said they aren't interested in switching from dial-up, and 25% of adults aren't on the Internet at all and are unlikely to …  |
| | The Bush administration was [URL="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20090114/order_20090114.pdf"]ordered this week[/URL] to take a number of steps intended to help preserve email messages sent between 2003 and 2005 that had been thought to have been deleted -- but the way the court order was phrased offers a number of loopholes to avoid the intent … |
| | A Harvard-based task force convened by 50 Attorneys General that spent a year researching the issue of sexual solicitation of children online has found out that there actually isn't a problem. According to the [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/technology/internet/14cyberweb.html?_r=1&hp"]New York Times[/URL], which obtained a copy of the report from the Internet Safety Technical Task … |
| | Remember the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3670.html"]Idaho elected official[/URL] a few weeks back who got in trouble for forwarding a message, comparing Michelle Obama to a black widow spider, to 26 people from his official email account? It gets better. The [I]Kuna-Melba News[/I], a weekly paper that covers western Ada County and eastern Canyon … |
| | A number of localities have tried to recreate the magic that resulted in locations such as Silicon Valley in California and Route 128 in Massachusetts. Now it's Idaho's turn. More than 100 Idaho business executives and politicians want to turn some 79,000 acres of land in Idaho, about 20 miles … |
| | A simmering Facebook controversy came to a...head? Female Facebook users are up in....arms? Sigh. It's hard to write about this seriously. Today was the live and virtual nurse-in on Facebook, as a protest against the social networking site's policy forbidding pictures of nursing moms (reports vary on whether it's when … |
| | Ah, yes, the wonderful Christmas tradition of watching Santa's travels around the world using a missile defense system. It's actually a very sweet story. "The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number," explains the NORAD … |
| | For many people, the first they heard of Saturday's plane crash at Denver International Airport was via a Twitter message from someone who'd been on the plane, which quickly made its way through the Internet: "Holy ****ing s*** I wasbjust in a plane crash!" (Despite what some overly dramatic news … |
| | Perhaps Idaho politicians and government workers just shouldn't be allowed near the Internet. Steve Rule, commissioner for Canyon County, was [URL="http://www.newwest.net/city/article/commissioner_sends_racist_email_using_official_account/C108/L108/#comments"]criticized[/URL] earlier this month for forwarding an email message, comparing Michelle Obama to a black widow spider, to 26 people, many of them at Canyon County government email accounts. To … |
| | A newly elected Idaho state legislator is considering drafting a bill to make anonymous blogging illegal. Ironically, the legislator in question is a retired newspaper editor. (Idaho has a "citizens legislature" that meets only three months a year; few of them are professional politicians.) Steve Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, was quoted … |
| | It's an annual event: Churches and other facilities putting out creches and other displays for Christmas find parts of it -- typically the baby Jesus -- stolen, with both a financial and a sentimental cost. Now, those facilities are equipping their baby Jesuses with GPS in order to track them … |
| | In 1964, a woman named [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genovese"]Kitty Genovese[/URL] was stabbed to death in New York while, reportedly, about a dozen people were able to hear her screams. Her death became a [I]cause celebre[/I] about the callousness of New Yorkers, though in reality they may not have realized what was going on. … |
| | 'Internet for Everyone' sounds like a laudable goal. Very Mom and apple pie. Who could be against that? The problem is that the name of an organization doesn't necessarily accurately depict what it's trying to do, and what Internet for Everyone is actually trying to do is far from clear … |
| | Ever had some computer malware spit a bunch of porn onto your screen? Now imagine it happening in a roomful of schoolchildren. Now imagine it could send you to jail -- for forty years. That's what happened to Julie Amero, a substitute teacher in Norwich, Conn., in 2004. Using a … |
| | If you ever had a big brother, you know that the same guy who gave you noogies could also protect you from a bully at school -- but you had to take the bad with the good. 'Big Brother,' in surveillance, is the same way. Government surveillance is getting easier … |
| | It seemed too good to be true: A Britax Marathon child car seat, the top rated seat from Consumer Reports, usually with a price tag of nearly $300, on sale at Target for $43, with free shipping. It was. The news spread like wildfire between members of the wired mommy … |
| | Is the time that it takes to boot up and power down a computer at the beginning and the end of the day work? [URL="http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202426038668"]A number of lawyers[/URL] are trying to settle that question. On the one hand, users start rebooting the computer and then spend up to 15-20 minutes … |
| | In response to a letter signed by 40 state attorneys general, the popular classified ad site [URL="http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites"]Craigslist[/URL] has taken additional steps to keep sex workers from using its site. Left unsaid, though, is that Craigslist had little choice, unless it wished to risk being made a party to illegal activity. … |
The End.