Topics by slfisher

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

[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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 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 …

'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. …

If you like the Google Earth mapping application, there's now an application that works with it and provides information on [URL="http://earth.google.com/outreach/kml_entry.html#tMarine%20Protected%20Areas"]"Marine Protected Areas"[/URL] on the Earth. Installing the application shows all the various marine protected areas (MPAs); clicking on them provides some information, including a link to [URL="http://mpas.appspot.com/pa?id=agRtcGFzchULEg1Qcm90ZWN0ZWRBcmVhGJv9AQw"]more detailed information[/URL]. …

[URL="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,444089,00.html"]Fox News[/URL] is ominously warning about the potential of Twittering terrorists. The U.S. Army's 304th Military Intelligence Battalion released in mid-October [URL="http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/mobile.pdf"]a report [/URL]describing how a number of social media and other technologies, including Twitter, could be used by terrorists. After all, “Twitter has also become a social activism tool …

Just months after [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3136.html"]Google purchased [/URL]the entire online rights to a new satellite's imagery, the U.S. government, citing budget concerns, has [URL="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-10-21-cognress-satellites_N.htm"]canceled plans[/URL] to launch two more commercial satellites. According to the Associated Press, the House and Senate intelligence appropriations committees cut approximately $1.7 billion in funding for 2008 and …

In recent weeks, both [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/technology/internet/08air.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin"]American Airlines[/URL] and Delta Airlines have announced that their in-flight wireless Internet services will include a filtering service to keep passengers from viewing porn on their laptops. I admit it, I'm torn. Porn proponents such as Violet Blue, in the [URL="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/10/16/violetblue.DTL""]San Francisco Chronicle[/URL], make all the …

The group [URL="http://www.stopinternetpredators.org/"]Stop Internet Predators[/URL], claiming that the Street View 360-degree technology can be used by pedophiles to help stalk their victims, is recommending that municipalities "[b]an Street View from your neighborhoods until it is safeguarded to ensure children's safety and privacy." How Google is supposed to do that, the …

We were all treated this week to a lovely example of why it's a good idea to use standard email for government business (or corporate business, for that matter). First, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin mentioned that [URL="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/09/AR2008090903044.html"]she used Yahoo Mail[/URL] for some of her email, which is a …

If you like using Google Maps and Google Earth in your applications, you're about to get better access to imagery. GeoEye Inc. of Dulles, Va., launched last Saturday a [URL="http://geoeye.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=304"]satellite[/URL] intended to provide high-resolution black-and-white and multispectral imagery. GeoEye and Google announced in [URL="http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN2837224420080829"]August[/URL] that Google had purchased the online …

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 …

Why prebuying Google sponsored ads might be a bad idea. Google "lieberman mccain." Or, click [URL="http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=lieberman%20mccain&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8"]here[/URL]. 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! Clicking the link takes one to "Citizens for McCain," an …

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 than 130 e-government applications through the [URL="http://www.alabama.gov/portal/index.jsp"]state's …

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. [URL="http://www.speedmatters.org/"]www.speedmatters.org[/URL], a project of the Communications Workers of America, has released its second survey of broadband Internet speeds in the U.S., noting that there has been …

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 alone paid $100 for …

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 …

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 [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_of_tubes"]"series of tubes"[/URL] and President George W. Bush referring to [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internets"]"the Internets."[/URL] However, a new generation of Republicans is not only learning to use technologies …

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 [URL="http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/07/29/picture-internet-told-me-there-was-earthquake"]wave of Internet messages[/URL] of people checking in with each other. In fact, [URL="http://www.emsc-csem.org/Doc/EMSC_DOCS/EMSC_RT_activities_2007.pdf"]one study[/URL] indicates that …

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 Surveillance Act, or …