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$22.99
By Robert Scheer
$11.89
$23
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Flickr / Ed Yourdon (CC-BY-SA)
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The Justice Department will ask Congress to make it mandatory for Internet service providers to retain data on their users’ activity. Law enforcement officials already can ask for data to be preserved, but Justice would like to have more robust snooping capabilities in order to investigate and prosecute “almost every type of crime.” (more)
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Official Google blog
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Eric Schmidt, who took Google from humble origins to one of the world’s most successful and most talked-about companies, announced Thursday that he is handing his job over to co-founder Larry Page, who, Schmidt blogs, “is ready to lead.” Schmidt will stick around with the hefty title of executive chairman.
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Flickr / cursedthing
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Speaking to a Netroots gathering, the Minnesota senator called net neutrality the “free speech issue of our time” and condemned the FCC’s decision to “create essentially two Internets.” Franken also said of the FCC-approved union of Comcast and NBC, “I hate this merger” ... (more)
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twitter.com / wikileaks
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When the Justice Department hit Twitter with a court order demanding the private data of certain users associated with WikiLeaks, the G-men might have expected that the social networking site would wilt like the half-dozen easily bullied companies that have cut off the whistle-blower, but Twitter, in the words of Wired’s Ryan Singel, “beta-tested a spine.” (more)
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Flickr / Mad Mike 3000
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By Barry Lando — There are limits to the virtues of free expression in a nation where semiautomatic pistols can be obtained by near-lunatics, including those who believe that their mission is to save the United States or mankind from the forces of darkness.
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Flickr / Max Braun (CC-BY-SA)
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The people who keep track of these things report that global spam traffic dropped from 200 billion messages in August to just 50 billion in December. Unfortunately it appears that the spammers may have decided to pause their activity before a relaunch. Which is just as well because we’re running low on Canadian Viagra.
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Flickr / Matt Clark (CC-BY)
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A glance at The New York Times this morning (downloaded to my iPad in Rome) and it’s evident we’re already inhabiting a Matrix world. ... (more)
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Flickr / Ludovic Bertron (CC-BY)
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By Chris Hedges — The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” It turns out they were both right.
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AP / Matt Rourke
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By Elliot D. Cohen — The recent FCC decision to “protect” the free and open Internet was long awaited by activists but it turned out to be smoke and mirrors, catering largely to service providers such as Comcast and AT&T.
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Flickr / balleyne (CC-BY-SA)
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How is one to make sense of the FCC’s big vote Tuesday? Does it represent a gain for the net-neutrality cause, or is the corporate takeover of the Web upon us in earnest? Well, one thing seems certain: Nobody is all that happy with the outcome—except, that is, for some lobbyists.
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Wikimedia Commons / Jonathunder
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It may seem as though the Federal Communications Commission might be onto something with the set of guidelines its members will probably approve Tuesday, but do these rules actually add up to what Sen. Al Franken and other skeptics are calling “fake net neutrality”?
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Where would Glenn Beck be without his blackboard? Will he ever graduate to dry erase? So many questions! In this clip, Beck delivers some much-needed answers about WikiLeaks’ beleaguered founder Julian Assange—more specifically, about Assange’s sex life.
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Gizmodo
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In addition to selling books, Amazon does a nice side business hosting websites. WikiLeaks was paying for space on Amazon servers this week until the retailer sent the leakers packing. No comment so far from Amazon, but WikiLeaks, now hosted in Sweden, responded with a dig about “the land of the free.”
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columbia.edu
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WikiLeaks, the website that has provided damning classified material on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, says it has come under a denial-of-service attack as it prepares to release another batch of secret U.S. documents.
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Flickr / Tim Yang (CC-BY)
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For 18 minutes last April 8, as much as 15 percent of the world’s Internet traffic was rerouted through Chinese servers, according to a U.S. commission, which said the diverted data included communications from Congress and the U.S. military. ...
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Facebook
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Facebook is trying to reinvent messaging—just don’t call it e-mail. Yeah, you’ll get an @Facebook e-mail acount, but as CEO Mark “Maaaaark!” Zuckerberg says, “It’s not e-mail.” Instead the new platform will collect your entire messaging history ...
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Flickr / webtreats (CC-BY)
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By G.W. Schulz, CIR —
Everyone from employers to the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, raising questions about how standards enforcing privacy online can withstand the rush of data about you and everyone else that courses through the Internet.
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If you’re not on Facebook, you’re officially more out of touch than the queen of England. Her Majesty, who already has a presence on YouTube, Twitter and Flickr, is starting up a monarchy funpage so you can more easily keep track of her business. Just remember, one does not poke the queen.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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As Burma approaches its first election in 20 years, a “distributed denial of service” attack has paralyzed Internet use within the country, knocking Burmese citizens from online communication in what analysts believe is an attempt by the ruling military dictatorship to restrict the flow of information.
Posted on Nov 5, 2010
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Flickr / Gauldo
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No matter how strict Facebook users may be with their settings, their bid for privacy can be compromised by third-party software developers who make those annoying apps that let users play games with each other—and, apparently, share their personal information with advertisers.
Posted on Oct 18, 2010
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AP / Jae C. Hong
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It seems Google has weathered the recession quite well, thank you. The search superpower reported a better-than-expected third-quarter increase in net income of 32 percent, signaling growing confidence in the profitability of online and mobile device advertising.
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A photo of Tyler Clementi from Facebook
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An 18-year-old violinist at Rutgers University jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after posting a short note on Facebook. Two fellow students are accused of using a webcam to broadcast footage of the freshman having sex with another man.
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Flickr / fccdotgov
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It’s a bird? It’s a plane? No, it’s super Wi-Fi! The FCC has finally approved a proposal to open the unused space between broadcast television channels—dubbed “white space”—for high-speed wireless broadband ... or, in more campy terms, super Wi-Fi.
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joindiaspora.com
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The creators of Diaspora are touting their new social network as a privacy conscious, open-source alternative to Facebook, but it’ll take more than good will to win over any of Mark Zuckerberg’s 500 million social drones.
Posted on Sep 16, 2010
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Gizmodo
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The whistle-blower outfit has made enough enemies to warrant some secure digs, but a former nuclear bunker excavated in rock 98 feet below Stockholm might be overkill. It’s actually the home of what must be the world’s coolest Internet hosting company, which will house the future stash of WikiLeaks’ digital treasures.
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The “Daily Show” host goes after Google for doing evil and tries to get to the, er, meat of Net neutrality.
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Flickr / The Pug Father (CC-BY)
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Google and Verizon have decided they would do a better job writing the regulations that govern their Internet businesses, and so the two have come up with a “policy framework” that has progressive groups and net neutrality advocates steamed.
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Flickr / Deneyterrio
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Here’s some palace intrigue from the inner chambers of the Facebook empire that could threaten the whole enterprise: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is denying the legitimacy of a contract, allegedly signed in 2003 ... (continued)
Posted on Jul 26, 2010
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The YouTubes are filling up with videos of teenagers engaging in the disturbing use of recreational drugs—in the form of digital music files. Buzzkill. We’re not sure which is more embarrassing—getting “high” from an audio recording or worrying about it.
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Flickr / Greg Davies aka cGt2099
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The implementation of a national Internet filter in Australia, hilariously dubbed the “Clean Feed,” has been postponed as “sections of the community” continue to criticize the extent to which the filter would block content.
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Today on the list: Teens report Facebook fatigue, Israel’s crackdown on boycotts, and where have all the protest songs gone?
Posted on Jul 1, 2010
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Flickr / Spencer E Holtaway
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Eagle-eyed Pakistani officials will be fixing their gazes on major websites like Amazon, Yahoo, Google and MSN in an attempt to zero in on, and even block, content that might be considered offensive to Muslims.
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Flickr / Rego - twitter.com/w3bdesign (CC-BY-SA)
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A judge Wednesday upheld one of the basic rules of the Internet, saving YouTube one billion dollars and letting the rest of us get on with business as usual. Viacom had accused YouTube of profiting from Viacom copyrighted content, but the judge in the case decided that the Google-owned website acted appropriately. (continued)
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Flickr / fccdotgov
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The FCC has reignited the battle for net neutrality after it requested public comment on three different plans for broadband Internet regulation. The new plans were introduced after a court ruling knocked down FCC measures to oversee Internet service providers.
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By Ruth Marcus — I’ve come down with a bad case of the shallows. That’s technology writer Nicholas Carr’s term—and the title of his new book—for the invisible, invidious impact of computers on the modern brain.
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Why researchers say lesbians make the best parents, how the Internet is affecting your brain, and why Americans are no rugged individualists. All this and more on today’s list.
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facebook.com/georgewbush
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The Decider has become The Poker. George W. Bush is officially on Facebook, where he’s now updating fans on his latest post-presidential blunders. We can’t wait to see how he fallows Farmville, makes up words in Scrabble and posts inappropriate comments on Angela Merkel’s wall.
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facebook.com
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Following Pakistan’s ban on Facebook last week, Bangladesh has become the second country to block the popular social networking site due to “objectionable” representations of the Prophet Muhammad and national political leaders.
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Flickr / @cdharrison
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Those fickle users of online communication technologies have defied the expectations of both select BBC reporters and people paid to study these things, at least when it comes to their instant messaging, which has apparently dropped off in recent years. Why could this be?
Posted on May 24, 2010
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Fake news by Andy Borowitz —
According to the head of the domestic spying operation, China decided to scrap its elaborate array of spy satellites, eavesdropping devices and closed-circuit surveillance cameras after recognizing that Facebook put them all to shame.
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Facebook has become something of a privacy nightmare (but then what did we expect when we turned over the social sphere to a private company?). Grumbles aside, here are some quick changes that can keep Grandma in photos without sharing your sexts and pokes with the world.
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Flickr / fccdotgov
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FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has announced that the agency will work to reclassify broadband Internet as a telecommunication service, like the telephone, effectively allowing the agency to oversee Internet transmission.
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facebook.com
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Researchers at the University of Maryland have studied the consequences of 200 American college students unhooking from all media—cell phones, social media, Internet—for 24 hours, finding that many suffered symptoms of withdrawal similar to those in drug and alcohol addictions.
Posted on Apr 25, 2010
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google.com / governmentrequests/
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Google has a new service, but it won’t help you find pictures of Justin Bieber or stay in touch with friends. It’s a map that shows how many times governments around the world have contacted the company with requests—either to remove content or retrieve data about Google users. Who knew Brazil was so nosy? (continued)
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Flickr / Knight725
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The future of the Internet looked a little bleaker to Net neutrality advocates this week after a federal appeals court decided that the Federal Communications Commission couldn’t stop Internet service provider Comcast from messing with the load times of certain websites ... (continued)
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Today on the list: The language everyone in the world is learning, YouTube’s original sin and whither the SEC?
Posted on Apr 1, 2010
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Call its decision soulless and/or good business, Microsoft has decided to stay in China despite the departure of its competitor, Google, from the country after a row between the government and the search site over the censorship of Web pages.
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The water disaster that could destroy California, how much NATO pays for dead Afghan children, and answers to frequently asked questions about health care reform.
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The Lotto Symbolizes the False Promises of Barracuda Capitalism
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