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Republican strategy is to paint Net neutrality as government 'control' of Internet
By Daniel Tencer, Raw Story, Oct. 22, 2009
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced a bill in the Senate on Thursday that would effectively allow Internet service providers to slow down or block Internet content or applications of their choosing.
The move came the same day as the federal government decided to move forward on an official Net neutrality policy that would prevent ISPs from making those types of decisions.
The FCC's new rules would prevent ISPs, for example, from blocking or slowing bandwidth-hogging Web traffic such as streaming video or other applications that put a strain on their networks or from charging different rates to users.
McCain's bill, the Internet Freedom Act, would block the Federal Communications Commission from making Net neutrality the law of the land. The rule preventing ISPs from slowing down certain types of content would create "onerous federal regulation," McCain argued in a written statement.
According to a report at NetworkWorld, McCain "called the proposed Net neutrality rules a 'government takeover' of the Internet that will stifle innovation and depress an 'already anemic' job market in the US."
But supporters of Net neutrality argue that the rule is needed to ensure that Internet providers don't censor content, or slow down traffic to Web sites that are in competition with their business allies.
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski argued that "reasonable and enforceable rules of the road" were needed "to preserve a free and open Internet."
"The Internet's openness has allowed entrepreneurs and innovators, small and large, to create countless applications and services without having to seek permission from anyone," he said.
But, the FCC chairman said, there have been "some significant situations where broadband providers have degraded the data streams of popular lawful services and blocked consumer access to lawful applications."
Two Republicans on the FCC also voted on Thursday to go ahead with the rule-making process, which will be open for public comment until January 14, but voiced misgivings about the plan.
NET NEUTRALITY A 'MARXIST PLOT'?
As the NetworkWorld article notes, McCain was on the opposite side of the Net neutrality debate from President Barack Obama during last year's presidential campaign. During his White House campaign, President Barack Obama came out strongly in favor of Net neutrality, which is backed by companies such as Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, eBay and consumer advocacy groups, but opposed by telecommunications, wireless and cable companies.
Republicans appear to be shifting against Net neutrality and aligning themselves with the telecoms and cable companies.
This week, media watchdog Media Matters criticized conservative news host Glenn Beck for what it said was Beck's allegation that Net neutrality is a "Marxist plot," and that the point of Net neutrality is to "control content," a perspective that prompted MediaMatters and other observers to question whether Beck understands the principle of Net neutrality.
In his announcement today, McCain appeared to agree with the notion that Net neutrality represents regulation and control, rather than a lack thereof.
His bill "will keep the Internet free from government control and regulation," McCain said, as quoted by Phil Goldstein at Fierce Wireless. "It will allow for continued innovation that will in turn create more high-paying jobs for the millions of Americans who are out of work or seeking new employment. Keeping businesses free from oppressive regulations is the best stimulus for the current economy."
-- With Agence France-Presse
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Also see:
Net Neutrality on Google Public Policy Blog
Saturday, October 24, 2009
McCain introduces bill to block Net neutrality
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Computer scientists take over electronic voting machine with new programming technique
University of California - San Diego, Eureka! Science News, Aug. 10, 2009
Computer scientists demonstrated that criminals could hack an electronic voting machine and steal votes using a malicious programming approach that had not been invented when the voting machine was designed. The team of scientists from University of California, San Diego, the University of Michigan, and Princeton University employed “return-oriented programming” to force a Sequoia AVC Advantage electronic voting machine to turn against itself and steal votes. “Voting machines must remain secure throughout their entire service lifetime, and this study demonstrates how a relatively new programming technique can be used to take control of a voting machine that was designed to resist takeover, but that did not anticipate this new kind of malicious programming,” said Hovav Shacham, a professor of computer science at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering and an author on the new study presented on August 10, 2009 at the 2009 Electronic Voting Technology Workshop / Workshop on Trustworthy Elections (EVT/WOTE 2009), the premier academic forum for voting security research.
In 2007, Shacham first described return-oriented programming, which is a powerful systems security exploit that generates malicious behavior by combining short snippets of benign code already present in the system.
The new study demonstrates that return-oriented programming can be used to execute vote-stealing computations by taking control of a voting machine designed to prevent code injection. Shacham and UC San Diego computer science Ph.D. student Stephen Checkoway collaborated with researchers from Princeton University and the University of Michigan on this project.
“With this work, we hope to encourage further public dialog regarding what voting technologies can best ensure secure elections and what stop gap measures should be adopted if less than optimal systems are still in use,” said J. Alex Halderman, an electrical engineering and computer science professor at the University of Michigan.
The computer scientists had no access to the machine’s source code—or any other proprietary information—when designing the demonstration attack. By using just the information that would be available to anyone who bought or stole a voting machine, the researchers addressed a common criticism made against voting security researchers: that they enjoy unrealistic access to the systems they study.
“Based on our understanding of security and computer technology, it looks like paper-based elections are the way to go. Probably the best approach would involve fast optical scanners reading paper ballots. These kinds of paper-based systems are amenable to statistical audits, which is something the election security research community is shifting to,” said Shacham.
“You can actually run a modern and efficient election on paper that does not look like the Florida 2000 Presidential election,” said Shacham. “If you are using electronic voting machines, you need to have a separate paper record at the very least.”
Last year, Shacham, Halderman and others authored a paper entitled “You Go to Elections with the Voting System You have: Stop-Gap Mitigations for Deployed Voting Systems” that was presented at the 2008 Electronic Voting Technology Workshop.” http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~hovav/papers/hrsw08.html
“This research shows that voting machines must be secure even against attacks that were not yet invented when the machines were designed and sold. Preventing not-yet-discovered attacks requires an extraordinary level of security engineering, or the use of safeguards such as voter-verified paper ballots,” said Edward Felten, an author on the new study; Director of the Center for Information Technology Policy; and Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs at Princeton University.
Return-Oriented Programming Demonstrates Voting Machine Vulnerabilities
To take over the voting machine, the computer scientists found a flaw in its software that could be exploited with return-oriented programming. But before they could find a flaw in the software, they had to reverse engineer the machine’s software and its hardware—without the benefit of source code.
Princeton University computer scientists affiliated with the Center for Information Technology Policy began by reverse engineering the hardware of a decommissioned Sequoia AVC Advantage electronic voting machine, purchased legally through a government auction. J. Alex Halderman—an electrical engineering and computer science professor at the University of Michigan (who recently finished his Ph.D. in computer science at Princeton) and Ariel Feldman—a Princeton University computer science Ph.D. student, reverse-engineered the hardware and documented its behavior.
It soon became clear to the researchers that the voting machine had been designed to reject any injected code that might be used to take over the machine. When they learned of Shacham’s return-oriented programming approach, the UC San Diego computer scientists were invited to take over the project. Stephen Checkoway, the computer science Ph.D. student at UC San Diego, did the bulk of the reverse engineering of the voting machine’s software. He deciphered the software by reading the machine’s read-only memory.
Simultaneously, Checkoway extended return-oriented programming to the voting machine’s processor architecture, the Z80. Once Checkoway and Shacham found the flaw in the voting machine’s software—a search which took some time—they were ready to use return-oriented programming to expose the machine’s vulnerabilities and steal votes.
The computer scientists crafted a demonstration attack using return-oriented programming that successfully took control of the reverse engineered software and hardware and changed vote totals. Next, Shacham and Checkoway flew to Princeton and proved that their demonstration attack worked on the actual voting machine, and not just the simulated version that the computer scientists built.
The computer scientists showed that an attacker would need just a few minutes of access to the machine the night before the election in order to take it over and steal votes the following day. The attacker introduces the demonstration attack into the machine through a cartridge with maliciously constructed contents that is inserted into an unused port in the machine. The attacker navigates the machine’s menus to trigger the vulnerability the researchers found. Now, the malicious software controls the machine. The attacker can, at this point, remove the cartridge, turn the machine’s power switch to the “off” position, and leave. Everything appears normal, but the attacker’s software is silently at work.
When poll workers enter in the morning, they normally turn this type of voting machine on. At this point, the exploit would make the machine appear to turn back on, even though it was never actually turned off.
“We overwrote the computer’s memory and state so it does what we want it to do, but if you shut off the machine and reboot from ROM, the exploit is gone and the machine returns to its original behavior,” explained Checkoway.
The computer scientists tested a machine that is very similar to machines that are used today in New Jersey and Louisiana. These New Jersey and Louisiana machines may have corrected the specific vulnerabilities the computer scientists exploited, but they have the same architectural limitations. The researchers highlight the possibility that current voting machines will be vulnerable to return-oriented programming attacks similar to the attack demonstrated in this study.
“This work shows how difficult it is to design voting machines that will remain secure over time. It’s impossible to anticipate what new kinds of attacks will be discovered in the future,” said Halderman.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
AT&T Internet to compete with Charter Cable in most of Anderson County
By Mike Ellis, Anderson Independent-Mail, Aug. 9, 2009
ANDERSON COUNTY — Monday is the first day that AT&T will offer high-speed Internet access in Anderson County that will compete with Charter Cable and satellite companies.
The platform is called U-verse and offers more than 100 channels of television programming, along with optional telephone service, high-speed Internet access and cell phone service.
“All on one bill,” said Amy Bristle, AT&T spokeswoman.
The program runs through telephone lines, not cable lines.
Click here to read the full article
After cyber attacks, White House must strengthen nation's computer security
By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board, Midwest Voices, Aug. 9, 2009
Last month, a surge of cyber attacks temporarily crashed more than two dozen government and commercial Web sites in the United States and South Korea.
Experts described the attacks as minor, but they emphasized a growing threat and offered a reminder for the Obama administration that it should move more quickly on this front.
With so much of our lives, histories and finances all online, this is a huge problem.
So far, the White House has made little progress in boosting the nation’s cyber security.
In May, President Barack Obama announced creation of a new effort to “deter, prevent, detect and defend” attacks by computer. A 38-page plan was made public, but it offered few details about how those goals would be met.
Click here to read the full article
Analyst predicts Apple mini-computer in ’10
Tablet will look like an iPod Touch, but a bit larger, may cost $500 to $700
AP, msnbc.com, Aug. 7, 2009
NEW YORK — A prominent technology analyst predicted that Apple Inc. would release a "tablet" or mini-computer for sale early next year, and that it could boost the consumer electronics company's revenue by 3 percent in 2010.
Speculation of a tablet from Apple has been swirling among analysts and technology blogs for a couple years as other PC makers post big sales of netbooks.
The tablet from Apple will look like an iPod Touch, but a bit larger, said Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray analyst, in a research note Friday. He said he spoke with an Asian component supplier that had received orders from Apple for a touch-screen device that would need to be filled by late this year.
Munster estimated the tablet would be priced between $500 and $700 and would compete with netbooks, the tiny, low-cost, low-power laptops made by Dell, Acer, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and other computer manufacturers. Sony, the Japanese electronics and media giant, recently announced it would start selling a netbook in Japan in August, with global rollouts following.
Click here to read the full article
Ford Pickup Trucks Feature In-Dash Computers
By Bill Howard, PCMag.com, Aug. 7, 2009
Say you manage a construction site and need a rugged laptop computer. Rather than spend $3,000-$5,000 for a ruggedized laptop computer and locking pedestal stand for your pickup truck, Ford offers an in-dash computer with Internet access and wireless keyboard for $1,195.
"I bet it's the first time you've ever seen Google running on the dashboard of a vehicle," says Bill Frykman, Ford Work Solutions business development manager.
The package also includes remote access, Bluetooth, and Garmin-developed navigation - in other words, a Happy Meal of Technology for less than the cost of integrated in-dash navigation alone.
This Ford Work Solutions system is available on Ford F-Series pickups, E-Series (Econoline) vans, and the Ford Transit Connect mini delivery van. The only downsides are that you can't have Ford Sync, the industry-leading music and Bluetooth system, and the screen seems small for doing serious work. Ford says the center-dash location precludes a bigger screen, at least for now.
Click here to read the full article
Hackers Expose Weakness in Visiting Trusted Sites
There are major problems in the way browsers interact with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates, which is a common technology used on banking, e-commerce and other sites handling sensitive data. Browser makers and the companies that sell SSL certificates are working on a fix. VeriSign maintains that its certificates aren't vulnerable.
By Jordan Robertson, Top Tech News, Aug. 6, 2009
A powerful new type of Internet attack works like a telephone tap, except operates between computers and Web sites they trust.
Hackers at the Black Hat and DefCon security Relevant Products/Services conferences have revealed a serious flaw in the way Web browsers weed out untrustworthy sites and block anybody from seeing them. If a criminal infiltrates a network, he can set up a secret eavesdropping post and capture credit card numbers, passwords and other sensitive data Relevant Products/Services flowing between computers on that network and sites their browsers have deemed safe.
In an even more nefarious plot, an attacker could hijack the auto-update feature on a victim's computer, and trick it into automatically installing malware pulled in from a hacker's Web site. The computer would think it's an update coming from the software manufacturer.
The attack was demonstrated by three hackers. Independent security researcher Moxie Marlinspike presented alone, while Dan Kaminsky, with Seattle-based security consultancy IOActive Inc., and security and privacy researcher Len Sassaman presented together.
Click here to read the full article here
Monday, August 3, 2009
U.S. and Russia Differ on a Treaty for Cyberspace
By JOHN MARKOFF and ANDREW E. KRAMER, NYTimes.com, June 27, 2009
The United States and Russia are locked in a fundamental dispute over how to counter the growing threat of cyberwar attacks that could wreak havoc on computer systems and the Internet.
Both nations agree that cyberspace is an emerging battleground. The two sides are expected to address the subject when President Obama visits Russia next week and at the General Assembly of the United Nations in November, according to a senior State Department official.
But there the agreement ends.
Russia favors an international treaty along the lines of those negotiated for chemical weapons and has pushed for that approach at a series of meetings this year and in public statements by a high-ranking official.
The United States argues that a treaty is unnecessary. It instead advocates improved cooperation among international law enforcement groups. If these groups cooperate to make cyberspace more secure against criminal intrusions, their work will also make cyberspace more secure against military campaigns, American officials say.
“We really believe it’s defense, defense, defense,” said the State Department official, who asked not to be identified because authorization had not been given to speak on the record. “They want to constrain offense. We needed to be able to criminalize these horrible 50,000 attacks we were getting a day.”
Any agreement on cyberspace presents special difficulties because the matter touches on issues like censorship of the Internet, sovereignty and rogue actors who might not be subject to a treaty.
United States officials say the disagreement over approach has hindered international law enforcement cooperation, particularly given that a significant proportion of the attacks against American government targets are coming from China and Russia.
And from the Russian perspective, the absence of a treaty is permitting a kind of arms race with potentially dangerous consequences.
Officials around the world recognize the need to deal with the growing threat of cyberwar. Many countries, including the United States, are developing weapons for it, like “logic bombs” that can be hidden in computers to halt them at crucial times or damage circuitry; “botnets” that can disable or spy on Web sites and networks; or microwave radiation devices that can burn out computer circuits miles away.
The Pentagon is planning to create a military command to prepare for both defense and offensive computer warfare. And last month, President Obama released his cybersecurity strategy and said he would appoint a “cybersecurity coordinator” to lead efforts to protect government computers, the air traffic control system and other essential systems. The administration also emphasizes the benefits of building international cooperation.
The Russian and American approaches — a treaty and a law enforcement agreement — are not necessarily incompatible. But they represent different philosophical approaches.
In a speech on March 18, Vladislav P. Sherstyuk, a deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, a powerful body advising the president on national security, laid out what he described as Russia’s bedrock positions on disarmament in cyberspace. Russia’s proposed treaty would ban a country from secretly embedding malicious codes or circuitry that could be later activated from afar in the event of war.
Other Russian proposals include the application of humanitarian laws banning attacks on noncombatants and a ban on deception in operations in cyberspace — an attempt to deal with the challenge of anonymous attacks. The Russians have also called for broader international government oversight of the Internet.
But American officials are particularly resistant to agreements that would allow governments to censor the Internet, saying they would provide cover for totalitarian regimes. These officials also worry that a treaty would be ineffective because it can be almost impossible to determine if an Internet attack originated from a government, a hacker loyal to that government, or a rogue acting independently.
The unique challenge of cyberspace is that governments can carry out deceptive attacks to which they cannot be linked, said Herbert Lin, director of a study by the National Research Council, a private, nonprofit organization, on the development of cyberweapons.
This challenge became apparent in 2001, after a Navy P-3 surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter plane, said Linton Wells II, a former high-ranking Pentagon official who now teaches at the National Defense University. The collision was followed by a huge increase in attacks on United States government computer targets from sources that could not be identified, he said.
Similarly, after computer attacks in Estonia in April 2007 and in the nation of Georgia last August, the Russian government denied involvement and independent observers said the attacks could have been carried out by nationalist sympathizers or by criminal gangs.
The United States is trying to improve cybersecurity by building relationships among international law enforcement agencies. State Department officials hold out as a model the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, which took effect in 2004 and has been signed by 22 nations, including the United States but not Russia or China.
But Russia objects that the European convention on cybercrime allows the police to open an investigation of suspected online crime originating in another country without first informing local authorities, infringing on traditional ideas of sovereignty. Vladimir V. Sokolov, deputy director of the Institute for Information Security Issues, a policy organization, noted that Russian authorities routinely cooperated with foreign police organizations when they were approached.
This is not the first time the issue of arms control for cyberspace has been raised.
In 1996, at the dawn of commercial cyberspace, American and Russian military delegations met secretly in Moscow to discuss the subject. The American delegation was led by an academic military strategist, and the Russian delegation by a four-star admiral. No agreement emerged from the meeting, which has not previously been reported.
Later, the Russian government repeatedly introduced resolutions calling for cyberspace disarmament treaties before the United Nations. The United States consistently opposed the idea.
In late April, Russian military representatives indicated an interest in renewed negotiations at a Russian-sponsored meeting on computer security in Garmisch, Germany.
John Arquilla, an expert in military strategy at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., who led the American delegation at the 1996 talks, said he had received almost no interest from within the American military after those initial meetings. “It was a great opportunity lost,” he said.
Unlike American officials who favor tightening law enforcement relationships, Mr. Arquilla continues to believe in cyberspace weapons negotiations, he said. He noted that the treaties on chemical weapons had persuaded many nations not to make or stockpile such weapons.
The United States and China have not held high-level talks on cyberwar issues, specialists say. But there is some evidence that the Chinese are being courted by Russia for support of an arms control treaty for cyberspace.
“China has consistently attached extreme importance to matters of information security, and has always actively supported and participated in efforts by the international community dedicated to maintaining Internet safety and cracking down on criminal cyber-activity,” Qin Gang, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said in a statement.
Whether the American or Russian approach prevails, arms control experts said, major governments are reaching a point of no return in heading off a cyberwar arms race.
John Markoff reported from New York, and Andrew E. Kramer from Moscow. Edward Wong and Xiyun Yang contributed reporting from Beijing.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Introducing the Google Chrome OS
Official Google Blog, July 7, 2009
It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.
click here to read the full article
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Internet radio sites, music industry reach agreement over royalties
Deal with SoundExchange allows large webcasters such as Pandora to pay lower per-song royalties or a 25% of their total revenue.
By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times, July 8, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- The music won't stop for Internet radio after a group of webcasters struck an agreement with SoundExchange, the organization that collects royalties for musicians and record companies, over payments for playing music online.
The settlement ends a 2 1/2 -year dispute that had threatened to silence the nascent Internet radio business and had forced some people who started online stations as a hobby to quit for fear of accruing expensive royalty bills.
The deal joins a series of agreements made this year that cover various sectors of the industry, including small webcasters and conventional radio stations that simulcast their broadcasts online, and have resolved much of the controversy.
Tuesday's settlement allows websites that stream music to avoid per-song royalty payments that were set in 2007 by a special federal court and that many Internet radio sites said would force them out of business. Instead, Pandora Media Inc. and other large webcasters can choose an alternative rate structure that allows them to pay lower per-song royalties or 25% of their revenue -- a major break, given that many webcasters don't make much money yet.
click here to read the full article
New Security Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Affects Windows XP & Microsoft Server 2003 Users
There is a new security vulnerabilty in Internet Explorer affecting users of Windows XP or Microsoft Server 2003. It allows hackers to take control of a PC remotely.
Microsoft has issued a workaround to fix the problem.
Click here to go to the Microsoft Security Advisory & get the workaround.
Speak Out Against Proposed NC Internet Retail Tax
North Carolina's budget tax bill now includes "affiliate nexus" language which may be voted on as early as July. We strongly urge you to immediately email Senators Hoyle, Clodfelter and Jenkins to express your opposition to this change to the budget bill.
EMAIL LETTERS TO:
David.Hoyle@ncleg.net
Daniel.Clodfelter@ncleg.net
Clark.Jenkins@ncleg.net
Here is a sample letter you can use & modify:
[Date]
Sen. David W. Hoyle
Sen. Daniel G. Clodfelter
Sen. Clark Jenkins
300 N. Salisbury Street
Raleigh, NC 27603-5925
Subject: OPPOSITION to SB 202, Section 27C.2
Dear Senators Hoyle, Clodfelter and Jenkins,
I am a small business owner with a website, and I am in strong opposition to Section 27C.2 of SB 202, which could specify that sales tax is due and to be collected by an online retailer when the online retailer uses an in state affiliate to sell its products.
I am opposed to this Section of the bill because it would substantially harm my small business by reducing a large source of revenue that I rely on to survive. This revenue results from providing advertising on my website as part of an “affiliate” or “associate” program with out-of-state retailers. [Describe how your business model is set-up and what you contribute to the local economy.]
If retailers believe that doing business with me will result in their having to collect sales tax on all North Carolina sales, they likely will sever ties with my business, putting the viability of my business at risk. Such was the case in New York State where Overstock dismantled its affiliates program and I am told by my colleagues that hundreds of other businesses followed Overstock’s example. This left thousands of affiliates – most of which are small- and medium-sized businesses – with a major loss of income.
Amazon.com has already taken action and has discontinued their affiliate program in North Carolina.
For these reasons, I respectfully oppose Section 27C.2 of this legislation.
Sincerely,
*********************
For information about proposed legislation on an internet sales tax in other states click here.
Online sales tax a web of trouble
The Orange County Register, July 5, 2009
Online retail giant Amazon.com cut ties with affiliate Web sites in North Carolina and Rhode Island to avoid the latest revenue scheme gaining momentum in state capitals to force out-of-state companies to collect sales taxes on Internet purchases made in those states.
Web retailer Overstock.com also announced last week it would end affiliate arrangements in those states, as it has with 3,400 online affiliates in New York.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got the message. After threats from both companies to end affiliate programs in California, the governor last week vetoed a package of new taxes that included online sales taxes.
Amazon had warned it “would have little choice but to end its advertising relationships with California-based participants in the Amazon ‘Associates Program,'” which pays affiliates a percentage of sales based on click-through purchases originating at their Web sites. Taxing the affiliate sales of out-of-state Web-based companies is “an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce” when the seller has no physical presence in the state, Amazon maintained.
click here to read the full article
2 more Web retailers cancel R.I. ties
By Paul Grimaldi, projo.com, July 2, 2009
More online retailers have joined Amazon.com’s boycott of Rhode Island as the companies try to stamp out efforts to tax Internet sales.
Online diamond and jewelry retailer Blue Nile Inc. and discounter Overstock.com both said they have terminated contracts with Rhode Island advertising affiliates over legislation enacted to tax online sales.
What has been dubbed the “Amazon tax” –– became law Wednesday as part of Rhode Island’s state budget –– and also has been proposed by a handful of cash-strapped states. The law will force Rhode Islanders to pay a 7-percent sales tax for Internet purchases from out-of-state companies, such as Amazon.com, that have formal business relationships in the Ocean State.
The states are following in the footsteps of New York, which in 2008 enacted legislation intended to get around a federal prohibition on taxing Internet sales.
click here to read the full article
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Bozeman City job requirement raises privacy concerns
Montana's News Station, June 17, 2009; Updated: June 19, 2009
(After massive media & internet coverage the City Of Bozeman dropped this requirement. - Tabosphere)
Applying for a job with the City of Bozeman? You may be asked to provide more personal information than you expected.
That was the case for one person who applied for employment with the City. The anonymous viewer emailed the news station recently to express concern with a component of the city's background check policy, which states that to be considered for a job applicants must provide log-in information and passwords for social network sites in which they participate.
The requirement is included on a waiver statement applicants must sign, giving the City permission to conduct an investigation into the person's "background, references, character, past employment, education, credit history, criminal or police records."
"Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.," the City form states. There are then three lines where applicants can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their passwords.
click here to read the full article
FTC plans to monitor blogs for claims, payments
By DEBORAH YAO, AP, Google News, June 21, 2009
Savvy consumers often go online for independent consumer reviews of products and services, scouring through comments from everyday Joes and Janes to help them find a gem or shun a lemon.
What some fail to realize, though, is that such reviews can be tainted: Many bloggers have accepted perks such as free laptops, trips to Europe, $500 gift cards or even thousands of dollars for a 200-word post. Bloggers vary in how they disclose such freebies, if they do so at all.
The practice has grown to the degree that the Federal Trade Commission is paying attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.
It would be the first time the FTC tries to patrol systematically what bloggers say and do online. The common practice of posting a graphical ad or a link to an online retailer — and getting commissions for any sales from it — would be enough to trigger oversight.
click here to read the full article
click here to read the FTC's proposed guidelines
Big music file-sharing penalties getting tuned out
By Michael A. Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 20, 2009
The award in the digital music file-sharing court case was daunting -- $1.92 million.
Liable for it is Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Minnesota woman who a federal jury ruled Thursday willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs. The jury awarded recording companies $80,000 for each of the violations.
Nevertheless, those who continue to illegally participate in peer-to-peer -- or P2P -- file-sharing don't have to worry about facing such a financial hit as Ms. Thomas-Rasset. The recording industry in August stopped filing lawsuits against individuals and is instead working with Internet service providers, or ISPs, to fight offenders.
Moreover, it may soon be legal for P2P file-sharing. Major record labels are discussing the possibility of a new entity called Choruss in which blanket licenses would be granted to universities and someday residential ISPs for a fee that would authorize the music swapping.
click here to read the full article
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Privacy May Be a Victim in Cyberdefense Plan
By THOM SHANKER and DAVID E. SANGER, The New York Times, June 12, 2009
WASHINGTON — A plan to create a new Pentagon cybercommand is raising significant privacy and diplomatic concerns, as the Obama administration moves ahead on efforts to protect the nation from cyberattack and to prepare for possible offensive operations against adversaries’ computer networks.
President Obama has said that the new cyberdefense strategy he unveiled last month will provide protections for personal privacy and civil liberties. But senior Pentagon and military officials say that Mr. Obama’s assurances may be challenging to guarantee in practice, particularly in trying to monitor the thousands of daily attacks on security systems in the United States that have set off a race to develop better cyberweapons.
Much of the new military command’s work is expected to be carried out by the National Security Agency, whose role in intercepting the domestic end of international calls and e-mail messages after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, under secret orders issued by the Bush administration, has already generated intense controversy.
click here to read the full article
Read The New York Times past articles in their series:
Cyberwar - Concerns and Complications
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Tell the FCC: The Internet Is Good for Democracy
Typical.
The media exec Michael Lynton just launched an attack on the Web, saying that he sees "nothing good having come from the Internet. Period."
But Michael Lynton is just the latest in a line of old media bosses who see the open Internet as a threat — something they need to control in order to keep prices high, access limited and users in check.
Those of us who rely upon the Internet every day now have a chance to tell Michael otherwise:
Make Sure Lynton and His Cronies Don't Stifle the Internet
At this very minute, the Federal Communications Commission is crafting America's first national broadband plan. Whether the plan will give more control over our Internet to the likes of Sony Pictures, Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon depends on what we do right now.
These companies' well-heeled lobbyists are flooding the FCC's public docket with comments in support of policies that let them:* Tilt the Web’s level playing field to favor the Web sites of corporate partners;
Acting FCC chairman Michael Copps has called the creation of the broadband plan "the most formative — indeed, transformative — proceeding ever in the Commission’s history." He added: "The Commission must act to ensure that the genius of the open Internet is not lost."
* Deploy content-sniffing devices that would randomly open and sift through our private Web communications;
* Impose usage penalties on people who use the Web for more than simple e-mail and Web surfing;
* Block innovative Web services that compete against their phone, cable and entertainment products; and
* Disconnect users for any reason or without justification
Copps is right. Michael Lynton is wrong. We need to tell the FCC that a more open and accessible Internet is a good thing that will revitalize our economy, engage millions more people in our democracy and give new meaning to freedom of speech. And we reject the nonsense that open Internet backers are all conspiring to promote piracy.
It’s time for the FCC to get behind a people-powered vision of 21st-century media media that’s participatory, open and democratic -- and not to hand the keys to the Internet to the old guard.
Tell the FCC: The Internet Is Good for Democracy. Period.
Click on the link above and tell the FCC that our national broadband plan must guarantee an open, fast, affordable and people-powered Internet without corporate gatekeepers.
Thank You,
Timothy Karr
Free Press Action Fund
www.freepress.net
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Twitter users ticked off over feed settings tweak
by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News, May 13, 2009
Twitter has made a small update that's left many avid users scratching their heads--to put it lightly.
A post on the Twitter blog explains the situation. Previously, Twitter users had been able to choose between two settings for viewing the feed of accounts that they follow: to turn on "@-replies" from members whom they follow directed to members whom they don't follow, or to leave those off and hence see fewer "tweets" that may not be relevant to them personally.
So, if I follow Twitter user @rafe, but I don't follow Twitter user @josh (sorry, dude), and I selected the second option in my Twitter settings, it would not show up in my Twitter homepage feed if @rafe posted a tweet that said "@josh: Why did you eat all that pizza I ordered?"
Now Twitter has opted to stop giving users the choice, and is automatically not displaying @-replies directed to people you don't follow. You can still see them on individual members' profiles, but they don't come to your attention in your main Twitter feed.
Twitter called this a "small settings update" on Tuesday, and explained that "receiving one-sided fragments via replies sent to folks you don't follow in your timeline is undesirable. Today's update removes this undesirable and confusing option."
But many active Twitter users have retorted that seeing replies sent to people they don't follow is a way that they meet new contacts on the microblogging service--and that Twitter is effectively blocking communication. None too pleased, they've set up a hashtag (Twitter's equivalent of a keyword) called "#fixreplies" to further the conversation on Twitter.
On Wednesday morning, "#fixreplies" was the top "trending topic" on Twitter, and new Twitter Search results for the term are coming in by the dozen.
User revolts are common on popular social networks--just look at the Digg DMCA snafu or pretty much any Facebook redesign--but this is the first time that Twitter has had to deal with a big one. And it's in a difficult spot right now.
Traffic has exploded recently in the wake of an Oprah Winfrey seal of approval (among other things), but these millions of new users aren't loyalists yet. There are already signs that Twitter users may be even more fickle than the average social-network member. A small move to tick them off could be a serious blow to the service.
It'll be interesting to see how Twitter handles this one.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Ning Apps Bring A New Dimension Of Flexibility And Power To The Social Network Platform
by Jason Kincaid, TechCrunch, May 6, 2009
Ning’s social network-building platform is getting a huge boost today, with the private beta launch of Ning Apps, a new suite of applications and features that Network Creators will be able to deploy across their networks with only a few clicks. The news has been a long time coming - network administrators have long been asking for features that could enhance their networks. But because of the nature of Ning, which houses hundreds of thousands of unique social networks, Network Creators were often requesting totally different things. Now they’ll be able to make everyone (or nearly everyone) happy.
At launch, Ning Apps is offering 90 new features to Network creators, built by 52 different developers that encompass a wide variety of web services. Network creators will now be able to integrate live video chat through TokBox, condunct contests with Wildfire, and create Wikis. Even better: network admins will be able to easily integrate monetization options, selling merchandise through Cartfly and tickets through Amiando and other ticketing apps.
Ning is likely going to be a very enticing platform for developers, too. Unlike social networks like MySpace, when a Ning network creator chooses to deploy an application, they have the option of deploying it to all of their users at once. And with some networks reaching more than 500,000 members, that translates into a huge jump in users. The applications are based on the OpenSocial standard, with some modifications to make them suitable for network-wide deployments. Still, even these changes are pretty minor - Ning says that developers have been porting their applications from other social networks in just two to three days.Access to applications is beginning to roll out to a small number of Network Creators tomorrow, and will be available to everyone by the end of the month. At launch, all of the applications will be free to install (though some of the apps that involve money, like Cartfly, will take a revshare at the time of transaction), but Ning may well decide to deploy premium applications in the future.
Before now Network Creators have had access to some added functionality through third party applications. But Ning didn’t support these, and some of them were eventually removed from the site entirely. CEO Gina Bianchini says that Network Creators installing applications through Ning Apps can have ‘absolute confidence’ that the applications will work as advertised.
Aside from the launch of Ning Apps, things seem to be going quite well for Ning. The site recently saw the creation of its 1 millionth network (of which 200,000 are active), and is seeing 85,000 to 100,000 new users per day across all of its networks.
CrunchBase Information
Ning
Information provided by CrunchBase
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/06/ning-apps-bring-a-new-dimension-of-flexibility-and-power-to-the-social-network-platform/
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
What Does @ Really Mean?
By Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo, May 5, 2009
You use it every single day. In English it's called the "at sign." The Italians call it "snail." The Spaniards, "arroba." The Slavs, "monkey." But what did @ really mean 473 years ago?
On May 4, 1536, Francesco Lapi—a Florentine merchant who at the time was in Seville, Spain—used the symbol @ in a letter, the first ever known instance of a document containing it. It didn't had a domain name after it, however. Back then, he was referring to the number of "amphoras" that were shipped in three vessels which departed Spain on their way to Rome, Italy. An "amphora" was a commercial volume measure of those times. The document you can see above says:
There, an amphora of wine, which is one thirtieth of a barrel, is worth 70 or 80 ducats.In Spanish, the word for that measure was called "arroba," which is the name the @ symbol still receives today in that language. Later, the symbol was conserved in typewriters' keyboards: People kept using the at sign through the centuries, and it was common in commercial accounting where it meant "at the price of."
It was in 1971 when Ray Tomlinson saw the symbol and thought it could be good to append the mail server host to the name of the person receiving an email:
I chose to append an at sign and the host name to the user's (login) name. I am frequently asked why I chose the at sign, but the at sign just makes sense. The purpose of the at sign (in English) was to indicate a unit price (for example, 10 items @ $1.95). I used the at sign to indicate that the user was "at" some other host rather than being local.And the rest, as they say, it's history. I don't know about you, but from now on I would be saying jesus amphora gizmodo dot com every time I have to tell my mail address. It just sounds so much better. Or better yet, jesus monkey gizmodo dot com. Yes. Definitely this one. [NYT Blog]
Saturday, April 25, 2009
'Sleep talking' PCs save energy and money
physorg.com, April 24, 2009
Personal computers may soon save large amounts of energy by "sleep talking." Computer scientists at UC San Diego and Microsoft Research have created a plug-and-play hardware prototype for personal computers that induces a new energy saving state known as "sleep talking." Normally PCs can be in either awake mode—where they consume power even if they are not being used, or in a low power sleep mode—where they save substantial power but are essentially inactive and unresponsive to network traffic. The new sleep talking state provides much of the energy savings of sleep mode and some of the network-and-Internet-connected convenience of awake mode.
UC San Diego computer science Ph.D. student Yuvraj Agarwal presented this work on April 23, 2009 at the USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI 2009). Computer scientists at UC San Diego and Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington and Cambridge, UK collaborated on this project and the NSDI 2009 paper, "Somniloquy: Augmenting Network Interfaces to Reduce PC Energy Usage."
"Large numbers of people keep their PCs in awake mode even though the PCs are relatively idle for long blocks of time because they want to stay connected to an internal network or the Internet or both," said Agarwal. "I realized that most of the tasks that people keep their computers on for—like ensuring remote access and availability for virus scans and backup, maintaining presence on instant messaging (IM) networks, being available for incoming voice-over-IP (VoIP) calls, and file sharing and downloading—can be achieved at much lower power-use levels than regular awake mode," said Agarwal.
Following this realization, the team built a small USB-connected hardware and software plug-in system that allows a PC to remain in sleep mode while continuing to maintain network presence and run well-defined application functions. It supports instant messaging applications, VoIP, large background web downloads, peer-to-peer file sharing networks such as BitTorrent, and remote access. The computer scientists say their system is easily extensible to support other applications.
click here to read the full article
Former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta to be MySpace CEO
AP, GMANews.TV, April 25, 2009
NEW YORK – With MySpace falling behind Facebook as the world's largest online social network, MySpace tapped a former Facebook executive Friday as its new chief executive.
Owen Van Natta, 39, replaces Chris DeWolfe, a co-founder of MySpace, who stepped down as chief executive Wednesday. News Corp., which owns MySpace, said Van Natta's new role begins immediately.
Van Natta faces the lofty task of reinvigorating MySpace at a time when Facebook is growing at a faster clip and Twitter, the short messaging site, is grabbing scores of headlines and celebrity attention. While MySpace is still the largest social network in the United States, it has only 130 million users worldwide, compared with more than 200 million for Facebook.
Even so, MySpace may be making more money, at least for now. Research firm eMarketer estimates that the company brought in $585 million in U.S. ad revenue last year, nearly three times that of Facebook. A big chunk of that, however, comes from an ad-sharing deal with Google Inc. that expires next year. Neither Beverly Hills, California-based MySpace nor Palo Alto, California-based Facebook discloses how much money they make.
click here to read the full article
TWU shuts down, secures computer system after student finds way to access adviser reports
By CANDACE CARLISLE, Denton Record-Chronicle, dallasnews.com, April 25, 2009
DENTON – Josh Ingram and other Texas Woman's University criminal justice students gathered around his laptop Wednesday afternoon on campus, unable to believe the information Ingram had accessed.
The 24-year-old junior discovered an online loophole where he could look up any student record he wanted through the university's Degree Audit Report System. And Ingram thought he had the ability to change grades with the help of a drop-down menu.
But TWU officials said Friday that no one ever had the ability to change grades and no identifying information was in jeopardy.
The Degree Audit Report System isn't the university's official record, but it is a copy for students to track their degree completion, said a university official. The loophole discovered this week gave students access to the adviser's portion of the report system, said Robert Placido, associate vice president of information technology services.
click here to read the full article
Friday, April 24, 2009
Cross-town rivals, Time Warner, Frontier go their own ways on fees
By Peter Svensson, AP, The Advocate, April 24, 2009
Time Warner Cable Inc., long based in Stamford, is testing a new way of charging for Internet use -- by the amount of traffic rather than solely based on download speed.
But now that it's expanding its trial into Rochester, N.Y., it's run into a problem: The local phone company, also headquartered in Stamford, refuses to play ball.
Frontier Communications Co., whose DSL broadband service competes with Time Warner Cable's modems, has shelved its own plans to introduce metered billing.
With Time Warner Cable facing the fury of consumers and threats of legislation, Frontier said it won't sell Internet service with "tiers" of usage, much like the minute allowance of a cell phone plan.
click here to read the full article
Google's Similar Images: Teaching computers to see
David Sarno, LATimes.com, April 24, 2009
This week, Google unveiled an odd but interesting new feature of its image search capabilities. Similar Images lets the user look for images that are visually close to a target image without being exactly the same. Playing around with the tool lets you see just how far the science of "computer vision" has come. Fundamentally, digital images are nothing more than patterns of lines and colors -- but Google has somehow taught its search engine to look at those patterns and decide which images a human would consider similar.
Try typing in "ferrari." The engine will return a page of listings, many of which have a "similar images" link below them. If you find one you like, you can click it, and be returned a page of images that are startlingly similar without being identical.
This is neat for Ferrari 360 fans who like to surf through pages and pages of car photos. But, in general, there aren't many reasons why you'd want to have a few hundred pictures of the same thing.
That's why it's better to think of the similar image search as a way to find similar things, rather than similar pictures of the same thing. If you're shopping for diamond rings, for example ...
click here to read the full article
Lip-reading computer can distinguish languages
by Mark Rutherford, CNET News, April 24, 2009
Watch what you say. Scientists in England have developed a computer that can not only read lips, but can tell the difference between languages.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia's School of Computing Sciences developed the technology by statistically modeling the lip motions of 23 bilingual and trilingual speakers. The resulting system is able to identify the language spoken by an individual with "very high accuracy," according to the university. Identifiable languages included English, French, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Italian, Polish, and Russian.
What gives you away? The movement of your articulators--when you wag your tongue, jaw, and lips, you are generating the measurable characteristics of visual speech, the recognition of which is known as lip reading. Computer vision has already been used in lip reading, or "feature extraction," but this is the first time computers have been "taught" to recognize different languages, according to UEA (PDF).
click here to read the full article
NJ senator proposes Internet safety program
BETH DeFALCO, AP, philly.com, April 24, 2009
RIDGEWOOD, N.J. - A U.S. senator from New Jersey is proposing a federal grant program to research and educate children about Internet safety.
Democrat Bob Menendez hopes educating teens, teachers and parents will stop children from sending explicit photos of themselves and others over cell phones and the Internet.
The four-year grant proposal, which is expected to be introduced next week, would authorize $25 million to $35 million each year toward Internet safety programs. The grants would be awarded on a two-year basis and administered by the Department of Justice.
Menendez discussed his proposal Friday at the George Washington Middle School in Ridgewood, one of the first in the state to start a peer-to-peer program called Teenangels, in which 13- to 18-year-old volunteers spread the word about safe Internet surfing practices.
click here to read the full article
Yahoo to Shutter GeoCities Internet-Hosting Service
By Brian Womack, Bloomberg News, MercuryNews.com, April 23, 2009
Yahoo, cutting jobs and closing businesses to stem profit declines, will shut down its GeoCities free Web-hosting service after paying about $3 billion for the unit in 1999.
GeoCities isn't accepting new accounts and will close later this year, Yahoo said on its Web site. GeoCities, Yahoo's second-biggest acquisition behind Broadcast.com, lets users design personal Web sites to show off photos, promote local clubs or publicize business services.
CEO Carol Bartz is trimming costs as Yahoo copes with a slowing online-advertising market. The company said this week it will cut about 700 jobs, or 5 percent of the total, after eliminating about 1,600 in the fourth quarter. Yahoo may shutter or farm out more products, Bartz said this week.
"We are increasing investment in some areas while scaling back in others," Kim Rubey, a Yahoo spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. "We continue to evaluate our portfolio of products and services on a regular basis, and plan to share details of further changes with our consumers and partners in the months ahead."
Yahoo pointed GeoCities users to its paid Web-hosting service. The company will give users more details on saving GeoCities' data later this year.
Other services Yahoo has closed include travel-search site FareChase and online storage service Briefcase.
click here to go to the original article
Thursday, April 23, 2009
RefWorks Launches RefMobile
Information Today Inc., April 23, 2009
RefWorks-COS (www.refworks-cos.com), a business unit of ProQuest, LLC (www.proquest.com), announced the launch of RefMobile, a new interface that enables students and researchers to use the RefWorks web-based research management service from anywhere, via web-enabled mobile phones, smartphones, and personal data assistants (PDAs). The RefMobile interface gives users immediate access to the most commonly used RefWorks functions, including searching their entire RefWorks databases, viewing references by folders, adding and removing references from folders, creating new folders, and adding comments to Notes fields.
Users can also efficiently import new references to their RefWorks account using the new SmartAdd feature. With SmartAdd, users simply enter basic identifying information for a publication, such as ISBN, digital object identifier (DOI) number, partial title, or author and publication year, and SmartAdd searches the internet for the reference and imports it to RefWorks.
In addition to the mobile interface release, RefWorks-COS also made a number of other feature enhancements, including the ability to include OpenURL links in bibliographies. Any RefWorks output style can now be configured to include dynamically created OpenURL links in bibliography formatting, using the Output Style Editor. A complete listing of all the new features available in the April release can be found at www.refworks.com.
click here to go to original article
Motorola's WLAN Solution Empowers Researchers at Stony Brook University's Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology
Motorola, Inc., EarthTimes, April 23, 2009
802.11n wireless LAN network delivers high throughput, resiliency and security required for leading research in innovative wireless technologies and business applications
SAN JOSE, Calif., April 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc., today announced that New York's Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) at Stony Brook University has deployed a Motorola 802.11n wireless LAN (WLAN) network at the Center's new research and education facility. The network leverages Motorola's award-winning RFS7000 wireless switches and tri-radio AP-7131 802.11n access points (AP) to deliver reliable and secure connectivity required by CEWIT's faculty and students to conduct next generation research in radio frequency identification (RFID) for asset tracking, wireless medical technologies, and wireless sensor networks for smart grid applications.
"We chose to partner with Motorola because of the company's continued innovation in wireless technologies, their experience and expertise in designing and deploying wireless networks and the rich feature set of their WLAN portfolio," said Dr. Satya Sharma, Ph.D., executive director, CEWIT. "Motorola's 802.11n wireless network will help us significantly expand the size and scope of our research, enable advanced studies on new video, voice, data and locationing applications, and accelerate the commercialization of innovative solutions."
Established in 2003, the Center is a partnership between the State of New York and industry-leading businesses. Its new facility, located in the Stony Brook University Research and Development Park, provides researchers with 100,000 square feet of additional lab space, allowing the Center to stay on the leading edge of wireless and information technology research while expanding into new technology areas.
click here to read the full article
Google to make Gmail one-stop online communication tool
Warwick Ashford, ComputerWeekly.com, April 23, 2009
Google plans to develop Gmail into a service that will allow users to manage all their internet communications, including alerts and chat sessions.
"We would like mail to cover a broader part of the communications spectrum," Sam Schillace, director of engineering at Google, told Computer Weekly.
"At present, e-mail sits in the middle of the communications spectrum that goes from static web pages to dynamic chat sessions, but we would like to extend that," he said.
Schillace also sees the opportunity to extend Gmail coverage of the spectrum of communications that goes from personal to professional.
click here to read the full article
Time Warner Cable wants legislation to eliminate competition
Peter Smith, ITworld, April 23, 2009
We've talked at length about the high costs of its proposed Tier-based broadband pricing plans, and it did back down from those (for now) after public pressure and a bit too many glances from government officials. Then came the rumors that, since they couldn't push the tiered pricing through, they were scrapping plans to roll out much faster DOCSIS 3.0 equipment in those test areas (at the same time that Comcast is actively rolling out DOCSIS 3.0 with plans to have 65% of its customers on the higher speed gear by the end of 2009).
Now comes TWC's third strike. In Wilson, NC, there's a city-owned and operated cable service called Greenlight which is offering higher speed internet and better tv channel selection than TWC does, for less money. Greenlight came into being when the City of Wilson approached TWC and local DSL provider Embarq and requested faster service for the area. TWC refused the request. And so Greenlight was born.
Now Time Warner Cable and Embarq are upset that they've got competition, and rather than try to go head to head with Greenlight on price and service, they've instead been lobbying the state government of NC to pass laws to put Greenlight out of business. And apparently they're having some success, as the NC State Senate have proposed bills that would do TWC's bidding. DailyTech has all the details on the story, and Brian Bowman, Public Affairs Manager for Wilson, has set up a blog to disseminate information about the situation. I love the blog's tagline: Broadband IS an essential utility - just like clean water and good roads. Rock on, Mr. Bowman.
click here to read the full article
Congress to hold hearing on cable advertising
AP, TMCnet.com, April 23, 2009
PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ Cable operators will sit in the hot seat Thursday as Congress reviews their plans to roll out targeted advertising amid fears that consumer privacy could be infringed if the companies were to track and record viewing habits. The House subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet will hold a hearing that will look at new uses for digital set-top boxes, the devices that control channels and perform other tasks on the TV screen. Cable TV companies plan to use such boxes to collect data and direct ads more targeted to individual preferences.
Broadband in S. Dakota to get boost
Brenda Wade Schmidt, ArgusLeader.com, April 23, 2009
Virginia-based DigitalBridge Communications plans to expand its broadband services in South Dakota's underserved areas.
That would bring portable, less expensive wireless access to people beyond Sioux Falls, where the company has operated for the past nine months as BridgeMAXX, said Bill Wallace, DigitalBridge chairman...
...The broadband service, called WiMAX 4G, allows people to have wireless Internet anywhere within the coverage area, about 15 square miles from one tower, Wallace said.
"It enables someone to take a laptop and hook it up to the Web with real good speeds anywhere," he said. Consumers probably would pay $30 to $35 a month for the service.
click here to read the full article
YTLE & Samsung Begin Implementation of Nationwide Mobile Internet Network
Seoul (Korea Newswire) April 23, 2009 - YTL e-Solutions Berhad, a subsidiary of YTL Corporation Berhad, today entered into a contract with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. for the implementation of a nationwide mobile internet network.
Under the arrangement, SAMSUNG will provide a comprehensive WiMAX network solution including WiMAX base stations, end-to-end IP Multimedia Service (IMS) solutions, and a range of Mobile Internet Devices (MID).
With this contract SAMSUNG will be supplying not only network equipment, but more importantly, the world’s 1st WiMAX-enabled handsets. These handsets will allow subscribers to have access to a high-quality, converged voice and high-speed broadband network all over the country.
Leveraging on its partnership with CLEARWIRE and CISCO, this contract completes YTLE’s comprehensive network, offering an all-IP (Internet Protocol) converged mobile internet service which includes high-speed data, messaging and voice.
click here to read the full article
Search for "me" on Google
Brian Stoler, Official Google Blog, April 21, 2009
It's no secret that from time to time many of us have searched on Google for our name or someone else's. When searching for yourself to see what others would find, results can be varied and aren't always what you want people to see — whether it's someone else with your name, or the finishing time from that 5K you ran back in 2002. We want to make that better and give you more of a voice.
To give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name, we've begun to show Google profile results at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages. These results offer abbreviated information from user-created Google profiles and a link to the full profiles. We've also added links so it's easy to search for the same name on MySpace, Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn.
Don't have a Google profile? Just search for [me] and follow the instructions at the top of the page to create one. In just a few minutes, you can create a public profile that represents you and that appears when people search for your name on Google. Check out www.google.com/profiles to learn more.
click here to go to original article
Recovery of Digital Sector calls for new strategies says ITU
International Telecommunications Union, eGov monitor, April 23, 2009
ITU’s concerns have grown rapidly in recent years to go beyond fixed and mobile telephones to issues concerning internet bandwidth and the increased convergence of devices, applications and services that “facilitate seamless communications in a multi-protocol, multi-vendor environment,” according to the Union, which is sponsoring the three-day Forum.
This phenomenal growth of the sector, highlighted by mobile subscriptions reaching the 4 billion mark at the beginning of this year, prompted ITU’s Plenipotentiary Conference in 2006 to convene the WTPF to review emerging directions.
WTPF-09 focuses on key policy issues that will guide future regulatory and standardization efforts worldwide in the areas of new technologies and networks, communications security and regulations to bolster interconnection between different networks and types of communications, the Union said.
A Strategic Dialogue on ‘Confronting the Crisis’ opening yesterday ahead of the WTPF, moderated by TV anchors Stephen Cole and Vasco Trigo, and focused on how investment and financing in ICT can make a critical difference in the current recession.
click here to read the full article
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Experts: Malicious program targets Macs
By John D. Sutter, CNN.com, April 22, 2009
Mac computers are known for their near-immunity to malicious computer programs that plague PCs.
But that may be changing somewhat, according to computer security researchers. It seems that as sleek Mac computers
"The bad guys generally go toward the biggest target, what will get them the biggest bang for their buck," said Kevin Haley, a director of security response at Symantec
Until recently, the big target always was Microsoft Windows
But blogs are buzzing this week about what two Symantec
This Trojan horse program, dubbed the "iBotnet," has infected only a few thousand Mac machines, but it represents a step in the evolution of malicious computer software, Haley said.
click here for full article