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2004 Archives
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2005: Year of the Vog or Vlog?
If 2004 was the year of the blog, 2005 might be the year of the vlog, or video blog. BusinessWeek reports that
"Thousands of ordinary (and some downright nutty) people have
begun posting a cornucopia of video fare online, from self-indulgent
art clips and earnest citizen journalism to sly political commentary." BusinessWeek is expecting millions of video blogs to bloom in the near future. There is still debate over which word to use: vog or vlog -- but there is sure to be rapid growth in video blogging thanks to the continuous movement of web users from dial-up to broadband. Adrian Miles, RMIT Media Studies program in Melbourne, has an interesting blog that discusses the emergence of video blogging.
Posted on December 30, 2004
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AOL Reports Spam Victory
Has AOL defeated Spam? MSNBC reports that AOL claims they cut spam by 75% in 2004. AOL also says that some spammers have completely given up trying to send spam messages to AOL customers. However, email filtering firms like MessageLabs and FrontBridge reported increases in the number of spam messages sent over the holidays.
Posted on December 27, 2004
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AOL to Offer Free Email
Newsfactor reports AOL plans to enter the free email arena and compete with
Yahoo, Hotmail and Google which offer different free and fee-based email services. Hotmail and Yahoo were forced to increase the amount of free space they offer to customers when Google launched Gmail, a free web-based email service with a 1 gigabyte of free space. The downside for AOL could be that they lose AOL subscribers
who only stuck around to keep AOL's popular email tools. AOL has been
slowly losing subscribers to broadband providers and cheap dial-up
competitors over the past couple years.
Posted on December 23, 2004
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Tech Products Hot With Consumers
As many posts on ShoppingBlog.com suggest this holiday season is
seeing large demand for consumer electronics like digital cameras,
computers, iPods, camera phones and slim portable electronics. The
demand is related to the integration of computers and the Internet
into everyday use as many of the purchases like digital cameras and
iPods work with online services and software. Digital camera buyers
can download their digital photographs onto their PC and share them
with others. And purchases of handheld devices and iPods can buy
and share music online. Any company that can come up with a new
device that can hook into the advantages offered with the Internet
could be very successful.
Posted on December 20, 2004
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Run Robot! Run!
Honda's Robot called Asimo (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) has improved on its already impressive set of skills. Asimo can now run and avoid obstacles in addition to dancing, walking up stairs and reckonizing faces. The BBC reports that Asimo made other improvements as well including "increasing his walking speed, from 1.6km/h to 2.5km, growing 10cm to 130cm and putting on 2kg in weight." The future looks bright for Asimo and his friends. A recent UN study estimates there will be 4.1 million domestic robots in homes by the end of 2007.
Posted on December 17, 2004
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Fast Forward 2005
Fast Company has a an interesting new feature that looks at 101 people, ideas, and trends that will change how we work and live in 2005. Some of the new ideas and products coming in the future include smart clothes,
mobile social networking software,
and HD-DVD and Blu-Ray (a possible DVD replacement just when you have a good collection going). Some workplace ideas include vacation accrual transfer, customizable health plans, desk-friendly food and tiered work spaces so more employees can have window views. The feature is worth a look if you want to see what could be just around the corner.
Posted on December 15, 2004
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Here Comes Personal Search
The BBC has a news story about how web search is getting more and more personal with new features and tools aim to make searching easier for the user. One of the new features, available with Ask Jeeves and in testing stages at Yahoo, allows surfers to save searches and keywords so they can be easily called on again -- saving users time by saving them steps in the search process. Another new tool, called Blinx, downloads onto your desktop and monitors your work so that it can suggest possible searches. Blinx also maintains a log of searches that websurfer's can call them up as needed. The major search providers are offering desktop search options as well. For example, Google recently launched Google Desktop which allows customers to search through their own files and documents. Expect personalization to become more and more part of web searching in 2005.
Posted on December 12, 2004
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Lenovo Buys IMB PC Group
Lenovo, a computer company based in China, will purchase IBM's PC group for $1.25 billion and assume about $500,000 in debt. As part of the deal IBM will get a 18.9% stake in Lenovo. Lenovo, which becomes the third biggest PC manufacturer with the acquisition, will have to work hard to win over concerned consumers and businesses that will have questions about maintenance and computer support. According to News.com the combined PC groups will be based in New York and have 10,000 IBM employees and 9,200 Lenovo employees.
Posted on December 9, 2004
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Make Love Not Spam
The BBC reports that Lycos Europe's Make Love, Not Spam campaign has ceased after complaints over its spam-fighting practices. The campaign offered a screensaver which the BBC said, "would endlessly request
data from the net sites mentioned in many junk mail messages."
It was an online version of fight fire with fire. Netcraft, a
traffic monitoring company, did report that the screensaver successfully knocked some of the spammers offline. Lycos has pulled the campaign and said in a statement that the campaign was just meant to stimulate debate.
Posted on December 6, 2004
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Half of IT Staff Not Needed by 2004
If offshoring is not bad enough news for tech workers rapid advances in technology could also eradicate many U.S. programmer jobs. A recent News.com article cited Gartner analyst Donna Scott's prediction that, "over the next 20 years, changes in computing technology will erase the need for much of the work that employs information technology staff today." And that by 2024 "companies will employ half the number of people they do today in these areas." Hopefully, a robotics boom or some other technology boom will offer engineers and programmers new opportunities outside of data centers.
Posted on December 3, 2004
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Offshoring Pace Doubles
A new study found that the number of jobs offshored was twice that which had been previously reported. This pace is also expected to quicken as more employers opt for much cheaper workers overseas. According to a study cited in a recent Boston Globe article 406,000 jobs were sent overseas in 2004. That is no surprise to tech workers -- many of whom visit websites like Is Your Job Going Offshore? to keep up with outsourcing trends that can be frightening to those in the computer industry. Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley's chief economist, told the Boston Globe, ''Offshore labor pools have become increasingly attractive and more and more of the new hiring incrementally is occurring offshore."
Posted on November 26, 2004
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Ask Jeeves Fights On
In the race to be the search destination leader Ask Jeeves is often overshadowed by MSN Search, Yahoo and Google. But Jeeves is not sitting back and doing nothing. The leaner and meaner company has been focusing on improving its services which include the Teoma search service, which offers search results combined with organizing features and link suggestings from experts. ComScore Media Metrix found that the Jeeves websites received 39.3 million users in October -- making them the sixth most popular with surfers. Ask Jeeves CEO Steve Berkowitz told USA Today, "We're the only ones who have survived, outside of Google, Yahoo and MSN. Everybody had similar assets. We put our money on the user."
Posted on November 23, 2004
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Firefox Browser is Red Hot
The Firefox 1.0 browser from the Mozilla Foundation is red hot thanks to cool new browsing features, like tab surfing, and constant security warnings about Microsoft's Internet Explorer. People are also turned off by the continuous need to upgrade Internet Explorer. However, this would ultimately be required with Firefox as well if it becomes popular enough to be targeted by adware and spyware creators. InfoWorld reports that AOL is planning to release a browser based on the popular Firefox design.
Posted on November 21, 2004
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Big Media to Buy Blogs?
Our blogs and online content providers about to be purchased in a big media buying spree? That is one possibility pondered by Wired columnist Adam L. Penenberg in a recent column. Penenberg looks at the possibility of large media companies purchasing websites like Slate and even popular blogs, like political weblogs. Sam Whitmore, of Sam Whitmore's Media Survey, told Wired, "Look at what happened politically. The same thing will happen in business, because people know they don't need to head to branded sites for good information. Bloggers can be trusted to be independent and people will turn to self-published experts for information."
Posted on November 18, 2004
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Microsoft Launches New Search Engine
Microsoft has debuted the beta of the search engine it has been promising.
The company plans to compete head-on with Yahoo and Google in search.
The site launched with an index of 5 billion webpages, but Google quickly
countered by increasing its index to over 8 billion webpages.
Other areas the three companies will continue to compete in include
email, social networking, discussion, blogging and online shopping.
Ultimately, Microsoft has plans for victory in the search department,
but they still have a ways to go to catch Google's headstart in both
popularity and technology.
News.com reported that Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer has promised that
Microsoft will build a superior Web search technology from scratch.
Posted on November 12, 2004
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Google Recruits with Brain Teasers
If you want to work at Google you are going to have to put on your thinking cap. Google is releasing brain puzzles on billboards and magazine advertisements to test and lure programmers and scientists to become part of its growing team. The tests contain questions like, "On an infinite, two-dimensional rectangular lattice of 1-ohm resistors, what is the resistance between two nodes that are a knight's move away?" Google currently employs about 2,700 people according to CNN. CNN also has an article about Google's brain teasing recruitment strategy.
Posted on November 10, 2004
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2004 Big Year for Bloggers
This year may be remembered as the year weblogs really took off thanks primarily to the 2004 elections. Traffic to political blogs soared as people sought information they felt the media was not providing. However, the most popular blogs are often run by experts -- people with in-depth knowledge on a subject or access to insider information. As @NY co-founder and blogger Tom Watson told InternetNews.com in a recent article, "There is one myth I'd like to debunk -- that blogs are somehow pure citizens media, a bunch of average Joes posting their hopes and dreams. That's a crock. The best-trafficked blogs are written by pros -- journalists, political operatives, consultants and the like -- not by Jane Q. Internet." A feature on writenews.com looks at some of the top political blogs during the election. It looks like political blogs popularity will continue into 2005 and beyond as political debate and controversy seems to be intensifying rather than weakening.
Posted on November 8, 2004
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Google Finally Provides AdWords Content Guidelines
ClickZ reports that Google now gives a better picture of what text ads it will and will not accept as part of its text advertising program. Google now provides AdWords content guidelines and editorial guidelines.
Clickz's Kevin Newcomb reported that Google's secretive nature about its AdWords content guidelines has frustated advertisers in the past. Some of the items Google will not allow in AdWords include alcohol, bulk messaging services (spam), illegal drugs, fake ID services, miracle cures, radar jammers, tobacco-related products and weapons.
Posted on November 6, 2004
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Evoting Concerns and Woes Reported
Evoting has been a concern of many ever since Congress refused to make a law requiring a receipt when people use one of the electronic voting machines. Most states have also not bothered to pass laws requiring receipts. Problems reported by Associated Press included unplugged machines, machines that would change the voters inintial selection for president and a glitch that gave Bush nearly 4,000 extra votes in one Ohio county. Nonprofit BlackBoxVoting.org is highly concerned about fraud and that hackers have stolen the election with the evoting devices. Wired has been running a great series of articles on evoting which can be found here. [Discuss]
Posted on November 3, 2004
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88% of IT Workers Stressed About Pay
An IDG
Computerworld salary survey has found that IT workers are increasingly concerned about minuscule salary increases. The 18th Annual Salary Survey, which polled nearly 10,000 IT workers, found that in 2004 salaries continue to be impacted by
economic pressures. For the third year in a row, IT workers received modest
pay increases, up only 3% as opposed to the national labor statistics, which report 4% compensation increases for U.S. workers since 2003. The majority of respondents (65%) reported an increase in base salary from a year ago, but 35% either did not report a change in salary or had to take a pay cut. The percentage of respondents reporting that they are feeling stress at work due to budget cuts and increased workloads is at an all time high at 88% and a quarter of IT workers say they are dissatisfied with their pay when considering all their job responsibilities. More than 27% of survey respondents reported increased use of offshore outsourcing at their
companies in the past year.
Posted on November 1, 2004
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Ecommerce Passes Porn in Web Searches
Porn no longer dominates the keywords entered into search engines according to Web Search: Public Searching of the Web, a new book by Amanda Spink and Bernard J. Jansen.
Spink told the Associated Press that "twenty percent of all searching was sex-related back in 1997, now it's about 5 percent." 5% is still a strong showing for porn searches, but the 20% attained by ecommerce related keywords shows how people have rapidly adapted to online shopping.
Posted on October 29, 2004
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Spware Rampant on Corporate PCs
A News.com article is citing a survey conducted by Equation Research for Webroot found that companies are not doing a very good job protecting computers from spyware. Less the 10 percent of the companies have installed anti-spyware software according to the study. And 82% of the companies surveyed had spyware on PCs in their workplace. Hopefully some of the IT managers at these companies will wake up before they have a major disaster.
Related Links: Spyware Removal Tools and Resources
Posted on October 27, 2004
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Intel Chairman Angry Over Flu Shot Shortage
Andy Grove, the chairman of Intel, has blasted the Bush administration for failing to provide the public with enough flu vaccine. USA Today reported that Grove said, "You look to government to protect you from that, and the government looks to the science and technology infrastructure. And this government can't even prevent an ordinary failure of the business market for causing probably more American deaths than terrorism. It is a manifestation of a government that has no appreciation for science and technology." USA Today reported that Grove is also angry at the Bush administration about tech job outsourcing and rising health care costs.
Posted on October 24, 2004
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Publishers Fear Password Sharing
Password sharing has become a common problem for publishers as websurfers seek to avoid constant registration forms by using shared passwords found on forums, blogs and websites. EcommerceTimes.com reports that password aggregator BugMeNot.com possesses keys to more than 30,000 sites. Publishers worry that if they cannot get people to register properly then they will have trouble convincing advertisers of their demographics.
Posted on October 21, 2004
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Advertising in RSS Feeds
Wired reports that ads are starting to appear with increasing frequency in RSS feeds. RSS aggregators like Moreover, Feedster and Topix.net have all recently included ads along with their syndicated feeds according to Wired. While it makes sense for advertisers to want to reach RSS feed subscribers, publisher should be careful not to damage this once ad-free medium by over doing it. However, it seems likely that subscribers probably would not object to the occasional ad as long as it was clearly an advertisement. We don't want to start hearing about RSS spam now do we?
Source: Wired
Related Links: RSS Resources
Posted on October 18, 2004
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AOL Working on a Browser
eWeek.com reports that AOL is working on a stand-alone browser that is based on Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The browser will work even if users are not connected to AOL's network. The Google browser rumor also refuses to die as Eweek mentions the possibility of a Gbrowser.
Posted on October 11, 2004
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Oops. Dick Cheney Makes Web Mistake
Dick Cheney made a big web mistake during his debate with John Edwards. Cheney was trying to accuse Edwards of being mistaken when Edwards brought up illegal Halliburton deals with Iran and Libya, so Cheney referred listeners to the website factcheck.com where he said people can find the real facts. However, the site Cheney should have used was factcheck.org not factcheck.com. Factcheck.com redirects users to the George Soros website at georgesoros.com which is highly critical of the Bush administration. To make things worse for Cheney factcheck.org (the website Cheney meant to say) did not even contain information disputing the charges Edwards made about Halliburton, where Cheney had been CEO.
Source: USAToday.com
Posted on October 8, 2004
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Anti-Spyware Bill Passes Congress
Anti-spyware bill H.R. 2929, called the Spy Act, has easily passed in the U.S. House of Representatives by 399 votes for to 1 against. InternetNews.com said the bill prohibits "phishing, keystroke logging, home page hijacking and ads that can't be closed except by shutting down a computer." InternetNews.com also reports that another bill will follow the Spy Act that will assign criminal penalties to companies and people delivering spyware. This is without-a-doubt very important legislation because there is a gluttony of spyware on the Internet and honest companies and web surfers need a way to diminish or stop it.
Source: InternetNews.com
Related Links: Spyware Removal Resources and Tools
Posted on October 7, 2004
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Yahoo To Personalize Search
Yahoo is planning on adding new personal search tools to its popular search engine. The tools allow users to save and make comments about search results. Users can then share their favorite searches and links with others. Users can also block results from searches that they do not want. The Associated Press noted that search competitors Ask Jeeves and A9.com (Amazon's search engine) recently added similar search features. The new personal search tools can be beta tested at mysearch.yahoo.com/
Source: USAToday.com
Related Links: Search Engine Directory
Posted on October 5, 2004
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Vivisimo Launches Clusty Search Engine
The New York Times has a news story about Vivisimo's new search engine offering called Clusty.com. Clusty is very useful. It pulls in relevant results from search engines like Looksmart, Wisenut and the Open Directory, encyclopedias like Wikipedia and news sources like the New York Times and Yahoo News. In addition users can cluster their search results by clicking on key words found on the left hand side of the page. Clusty also contains other tabs for images and shopping and also users to customize results. Google will have to keep innovating to fight off threats from challengers like Clusty.com.
Posted on October 1, 2004
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Beware the JPEG of Death
EcommerceTimes.com reports that a serious new piece of spyware comes to computers simply by surfing the web. The JpegOfDeath trojan was first reported on Usenet and it can allow your computer to be taken over by hackers. Experts are worried a mass mailing worm will be created in the future using the new type of JPEG trojan. Graham Cluley, a consultant for Sophos, told the EcommerceTimes.com that "security firms are especially concerned about the vulnerability and the ensuing exploits because JPEGs are such a commonly used format for viewing images online."
Posted on September 29, 2004
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Pfizer: Viagra Spam is Not From Us
The New York Times is reporting that Pfizer has launched an advertising campaign to tell people that it is not spamming email boxes about the wonders of its Viagra product. Pfizer is the company that makes the Viagra drug targeted at men. Apparently Pfizer has been receiving tons of complaints about unwanted Viagra offers arriving in their email boxes. The Times reported that the some of the email ads contained the text "make her want you more then ever." The bottom line: Spam is bad for business and annoys both the customers and the product manufacturers. Pfizer is smart to try and distance themselves from the spam.
Posted on September 21, 2004
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Dismal Hi-Tech Job Market
Some very depressing tech industry numbers were reported in a recent USAToday.com article. 403,300 jobs were lost between March, 2001 and April, 2004 and half of these job losses occured after November, 2001 when the recession was supposed to be over. USA Today said that the report found that the "job market for
high-tech workers shrank by 18.8%, to 1,743,500, between March 2001 and April 2004." It really looks grim. One thing that would help would be some new technology that people could go crazy about. Something like a home robotics boom or teleportation. Well, one can hope.
Posted on September 18, 2004
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Amazon Enters Search Battle
Amazon has entered the search engine wars with its own entry called A9. A9 uses tabs and columns to allow people to search for websites, images and books. A9 users can also create bookmarks and diary entries. The A9 search engine also includes website information like traffic and contact information that it pulls in from Amazon.com's Alexa service. Amazon.com has a big hurdle to climb to compete with Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. However, Amazon.com might be able to get more search traffic by finding away to hook A9 into its affiliate program -- which has hundreds of thousands of members.
Source: News.com
Posted on September 17, 2004
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Microsoft's Browser Dominance Slipping
Microsoft still dominates the browser market with Internet Explorer but recently they have showed some slight weakness. BusinessWeek reports that IE's reach dropped from 95.6% in June to 93.7% in September and that competing Mozilla browsers gained slightly. BusinessWeek also says Mozilla is coming out with a new browser later this Fall called Firefox 1.0. Most of Microsoft's losses can be blamed on security issues as web surfers are now bombed with spam, pop-ups and spyare. There is also still a persistent web rumor that Google may enter the browser wars down the road. However, the ultimate winner may be the company that manages to come up with a browser that adds another layer of encryption for the surfer -- without slowing things down.
Source: BusinessWeek
Posted on September 15, 2004
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Solved Math Problem Threatens Ecommerce
Mathematicians could be on the verge of a breakthough that could threaten ecommerce itself. According to the Guardian if the Riemann hypothesis is solved then "financial disaster might follow. Suddenly all cryptic codes could be breakable. No internet transaction would be safe." A Reimann hypothesis could explain the link between prime numbers like 13 and 37 that are divisible only by the prime number itself 1. Internet cryptography is based on prime numbers.
Source: Wired
Posted on September 11, 2004
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Diebold Threatened With Lawsuit
Wired reports that California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has threatened to sue Diebold for defrauding California by making false claims about their electronic voting product. Lockyer says the claims and aggressive marketing by Diebold have led to the installment of e-voting machines that were never properly tested. There has also been a growing concern over the fact that there is no paper trail in many states for voters to confirm their vote. The Computer Ate My Vote website maintains an ongoing list of states using the controversial voting machines. California and Nevada have already passed legislation requiring a paper print-out.
Source: Wired
Posted on September 8, 2004
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All Tech Jobs Outsourced Within 10 Years
Rediff.com reports that Kathy Brittain White, a former CIO of Cardinal Health Inc. and a Forbes Top 25 American Businesswomen, said "If something is not done in 10 years, every technology job will be overseas." While her statement sounds extreme, reports and studies indicate that the outsourcing trend will continue growing rapidly as U.S. companies look for cheaper labor overseas in countries like India. Lou Dobbs, the CNN business news anchor, even has a new book out on the outsourcing trend called, Exporting America. According to a WriteNews.com article Dobbs says that "corporate America isn't doing this alone: big business and Washington are in absolute partnership and show little regard for the profound social and economic consequences of Exporting America." For those who believe that outsourcing high-paying tech jobs will somehow help the United States online forums like YourJobIsGoingtoIndia.com tell how the job losses are impacting individual workers and creating stress for tech workers that still have jobs.
Posted on September 6, 2004
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Google Browser Rumor
Rumors, like this entry on the kottke.org blog, are building that Google might be building a browser to compete with Microsoft. A deal or purchase of a browser such as Mozilla would certainly help Google make a fast jump into the browser market that is dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer. On the other hand would Google really want to be forced to concern itself with all the security issues popular browsers face?
Posted on September 1, 2004
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Electronic Voting Controversy Continues
Concern over electronic voting systems is growing as the election nears.
Complaints range from concerns over the security of the machines to the
lack of a paper receipt so votes can be properly recounted if need be.
Diebold, Inc. is the the largest manufacturer of the controversial touch screen voting systems. According to a CNN news story, Walden O'Dell,
the CEO of Diebold, wrote in a letter fundraising pitch to Republicans
that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to
the president." The Computer Ate My Vote website maintains an ongoing list of states using the electronic voting machines. Wired recently reported that California and Nevada have already passed legislation requiring a paper print-out. However, many states still do not require the paper print-outs and Election Day is only two months away. [Discuss this topic]
Posted on August 31, 2004
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Microsoft Says Longhorn Release in 2006
Microsoft has announced it will release Longhorn, the next major upgrade to its Windows operating system, in 2006. A Wired News article said Microsoft has scaled back on Longhorn's plans and Longhorn will not include a "new system for finding and storing information." However, Microsoft does promise improvements in performance, security and reliability with the next edition. Microsoft last major release of Windows was Windows XP back in 2001.
Related Links: Computer Center: Operating Systems
Posted on August 28, 2004
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Another Internet Jihad Threat
Is it possible that a web attack by terrorists could cripple the Internet? The issue is often debated among security experts today with no clear answer as to yes or no. However, for this doomsday situation to actually happen the attack itself would have to be implemented. So far, it seems, all we have is threats found on various websites. Like this Internet Jihad threat reported by News.com. News.com reported that this latest threat was downplayed by security firms and security experts, including experts at the Internet Storm Center.
Posted on August 25, 2004
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First Spam. Now Spim
Unfortunately spam will no longer just happen to your email. The BBC reports that a new form of unwanted commercial messages called spim will get at you through your instant messaging service. Alyn Hockey, technical director at internet security firm Clearswift, told the BBC that "It's not really as dangerous as spam. With spim, it tends to be more of an annoyance." So, so far spim is just a minor annoyance. But isn't that how spam started out too?
Posted on August 22, 2004
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Google Breaks 100 on Opening Day
Google's stock soared over 18% on opening day -- rising from the $85 IPO
opening share price
to just over $100. At this price the stock has an extremely high PE of 138.78. Google's IPO was brought down earlier this week from the originally expected IPO price opening of $108 - $135 per share (see Marketwatch.com article). It remains to be seen where Google's price will go from here. Google trades under the NASDAQ symbol GOOG. Investors have been hoping the IPO stock launch of the incredibly popular search provider would rekindle the flames of a tech boom, but with rising oil prices and a weak economy looming over the market, Google's debut might not be enough.
Posted on August 19, 2004
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RSS Going Mainstream
RSS is becoming more popular. Initially a tool for finding new content in blogs, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has quickly become popular with news publishers. Now,
News.com reports that John Pacchetti, a web developer is aunching an RSS tool called RSSCalendar, which allows calendar data to be published in an RSS Feed. This is likely to be the first of many new programs designed for RSS.
Related Links: RSS Tools and Resources
Posted on August 16, 2004
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Ecommerce Turns Ten
News.com reports that ecommerce turned ten years old on August, 11th 2004 --
the anniversary of the launch of NetMarket. This site beat Amazon, eBay, Buy.com and others to the starting gate. However,the founders of the Internet Shopping Network argue that they were first with their computer equipment shopping site. Ten years later it appears that being first isn't everything.
Posted on August 13, 2004
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Easiest to Guess Passwords Most Popular
Despite being easy for hackers to guess many people use
personal names and dates for their Internet and email
passwords. A Silicon.com article (citing a Visa Europe study)
reports that passwords about pets, birthdays, family members and
historical events are the most popular. The study even found
that 2% of people have used "password" as their password! The large amount of
passwords needed to surf the web today could be part of the
reason people choose familiar names and dates for their logins.
However, a combination of letters and numbers is a much better
choice from a security standpoint.
Posted on August 11, 2004
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Computer Majors Becoming Less Popular in USA
Layoffs from the post dot-com boom and offshoring fears are driving interest away from computer majors according to a recent study cited in USA Today. According to the study by Computing
Research Association, enrollment in computer majors has plummeted
an incredible 23% since last year. Experts are concerned that the
lack of interest in computer majors could hurt the United States in
the future and accelerate the offshoring trend.
Posted on August 9, 2004
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People Weak Link in Virus Proliferation
People are the weak link when it comes to virus proliferation. Despite warnings and widespread media coverage people continue to open emails with attachments, download trojans, disable security settings, delay security updates and use web connections without firewall and anti-virus protection. The BBC reports that small business senior managers blame staff for 50% of their computer virus problems.
Related Links: Anti-Spyware Resoures and Tools
Posted on August 6, 2004
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Yahoo Toolbar Now Targets Adware
Yahoo has modified its toolbar so that it now targets adware as well as spyware, reports eWeek. Previously, Yahoo's Toolbar would automatically check for spyware as the default, but users of the toolbar would have to check a box to have their computer scanned for adware as well. Now, eWeek reports that the default for the toolbar is to automatically scan for both adware and spyware. While some people defend adware and claim it is different from spyware, many anti-spyware experts and privacy activists dot not see much of a difference.
Related Links: Anti-Spyware Resoures and Tools
Posted on August 5, 2004
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Mozilla Offers Bug Bounty
News.com reported that Mozilla users can make $500 in cash if they can discover a serious bug in the Mozilla browser. The reward offers comes at a time of heightened concerns over online security and browsers with Microsoft recently recieving the brunt of trojan and worm attacks. Mozilla Foundation president Mitchell Baker said he hoped the bug reports would give them "a head start on correcting vulnerabilities before they are exploited by malicious hackers."
Posted on August 3, 2004
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Yet Another IE Patch
As reported by the Washington Post and obvious to anyone who gets automatic notification of Windows security updates, there are new critical patches for Internet Explorer. The new IE software patches are supposed to fix the recent flaw that allowed computers to be attacked with spyware through IE. The Washington Post says this is the twelfth critical patch from Microsoft so far this year.
Posted on August 2, 2004
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Online Advertising Expected to Soar
There is finally some good news for web publishers as online advertising is expected to soar in the next several years. ClickZ reports that JupiterResearch expects online advertising revenues to grow to $16.1 billion in 2009 -- that is an increase of nearly $10 billion since 2003's $6.6 billion figure. Jupiter expects the growth to be in display ads and classifieds, as well as the current paid search trend.
Posted on July 28, 2004
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Poll: Some Succumb to Spam Offers
Not everyone is able to simply ignore and delete spam according to a new study discussed in a USA Today article. The study found that 20% of Americans have purchased something from a spam email and 1/3 said they have responded to spam emails. The study did not go into what type of emails the people consider spam, so it is possible the people surveyed could have been responding to emails from merchants they had ordered from previously or simply responding to other subscription content that was not actually spam. At any rate, the fact that some people do respond to spam emails is probably the main reason the spammers keep sending it.
Posted on July 27, 2004
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Tech Firms Concerned About Induce Act
The Induce Act, sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch, is a new law that would make it illegal to intentionally induce copyright infringement. The law could have serious implications for software companies that design products that end up being used to swap illegal material. News.com reported that a letter signed by CNET Networks, eBay, Google, Intel, MCI, TiVo, Verizon, Sun Microsystems and Yahoo said the The Induce Act "would chill innovation and drive investment in technology." A Wired article on the Induce Act says that critics are concerned recent developments like peer-to-peer networks and the iPod could be illegal under the new law.
Posted on July 24, 2004
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Surfers Reject Registration Login
Web surfers are revolting against the rising number of websites requiring online registration. A Wired article details how users worried about privacy are avoiding the registration process by using sites like BugMeNot.com, which offers logins to various websites, and Malinator, which helps people avoiding using their actual email address. People are primarily avoiding the registration out of privacy concerns, but the increasing number of logins being required by websites, can create an inconvenience for surfers -- especially when they change computers and have to login all over again.
Posted on July 20, 2004
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Concern Grows Over E-voting Paper Trails
As the November election approaches States are putting final preparations together to be ready when people come to vote on election day. Many districts will be using new digital voting systems, known as e-voting machines, devloped by companies like Diebold Election Systems. As Wired reports concern is growing that these systems will not provide a paper trail so people can make sure their vote was correctly cast. A campaign, called Computer Ate My Vote, is underway to urge state election officials to prohibit the use of computerized voting machines until we know they are safe and have a way to run reliable recounts. The Computer Ate My Vote website maintains an ongoing list of states using the controversial voting machines.
Wired reports that California and Nevada have already passed legislation requiring a paper print-out.
Posted on July 15, 2004
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Verisign Makes DNS Changes Happen Faster
The speed of DNS changes in improving. The Register reports that Verisign will now update its domain registry every few minutes instead of twice per day. Verisign has provided a FAQ to help people learn about the upcoming DNS changes.
Posted on July 13, 2004
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Firms Monitor Outgoing Email
As reported on Security Pipeline, a study from security software provider Proofpointfirms found that 43% of companies are reading more outbound email than ever. The study also found that firms have employees that monitor these emails and over 20% of firms also monitor outgoing instant messages. While some of this activity is dedicated to scanning outgoing email for viruses, it does raise privacy concern for employees. However, many companies have been monitoring employee phone calls for some time now.
Posted on July 12, 2004
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Growth Slows for Paid Search
Paid search advertising has grown at a blistering pace over the past few years, but that may be slowing according to a News.com article. Growth at Yahoo's Overture has slowed down from 45% in Quarter 1 to 39% in Quarter 2. Still 39% growth is nothing to sneeze at. However, another sign the paid search could be slowing was Google's recent decision to allow banner ads in its Adsense text ad network.
Posted on July 8, 2004
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US, UK and Aussies Team Up to Fight Spam
InternetNews.com is reporting that the United States, the UK and Australia have joined together in a battle against spam. Spam continues to grow in all three countries each month. The agreement is primarily and information sharing agreement, but any help these days against spam is a good thing.
Posted on July 6, 2004
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Mozilla Gains From IE Security Problems
Microsoft has maintained a dominant marketshare with its Internet Explorer browser for the past couple years, but the increasing number of security threats may be starting to weaken its position. According to a recent Wired News article, IE is starting to lose marketshare to the Mozilla browser. Part of the reason is a report from US-CERT that suggested surfers switch to different browser than IE because of growing security problems. One of the main reasons the other browsers might be safer is simply because they are not used by as many people, so virus writers might not find it as worthwhile to target them.
Posted on July 3, 2004
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Google Attracts Surfers to Gmail and Orkut
In a recent article, The Media Cynic discusses the clever moves by Google to get their new products noticed. The new products include Orkut, a social networking website, and Gmail, a free online email service offering 1 gigabyte of email storage. Google has driven demand for these new services by slowly giving out accounts and making the rest of the web population have to be invited to join. As the Media Cynic reports, "People are frantically searching for invites to open a Gmail account."
Posted on July 2, 2004
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Browsers Team Up for Standard Plug-in
InternetNews.com reports that Mozilla, Opera, Apple Safari, Macromedia and Sun Microsystems are joining up to support a standardized plug-in functionality based on the Netscape Plugin Application Interface (NPAPI). Microsoft, which dominates the browser marketplace, continues to support its own plug-in technology called ActiveX. ActiveX has been blamed for web security problems over the past couple years by internet security experts.
Posted on July 1, 2004
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Nasty Banking Password Stealing Program Discovered
News.com is reporting that there is a sneaky program that is downloading itself to PCs through a pop-up. This spyware program can then read your PCs keystrokes, steal your online banking passwords and send them to thieves who created the invasive little program. This is just another sign of the increasing threat to web surfers from spyware and trojans.
Posted on June 29, 2004
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Find God Online
As Insight Magazine reports, millions of people are logging on to find God. Religious information, practice and study is one of the main reasons people use the Internet, according to a recent study. The study
conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Project found that over
28 million Americans have used the Internet for a religious purpose.
And there are plenty of websites for people of all faiths to choose
from. According to Websense Inc., there are over 77,000 websites
dedicated to a particular religion. There are also interfaith sites
like Beliefnet.com, which has 4 million subscribers.
Posted on June 25, 2004
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What Will Google Do With Blogger?
Wired reports that the U.S. Army is planning on building an online games studio. The Army now found success with America's Army that has been downloaded by over 3 million people. According to Wired, the new studio is located in Cary, NC and includes a staff of fifteen.
Posted on June 21, 2004
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Game Websites are the Stickiest
Writenews.com reports that a Nielsen//NetRatings study found online gaming websites to be the stickiest of them all. The study found that web surfers spend more two hours a month on online gaming sites. A game site called Slingo had the stickiest site with people spending more than four hours a month on Slingo's website.
Posted on June 18, 2004
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Spam Costly to Businesses
ZDNet reported that Nucleus, a research firm, found spam is costing almost $2,000 per employee after interviews with over eighty Fortune 500 companies. ZDNet said the Nucleus study also found that employees receive an average of 7,500 spam emails a year. Spam can cost companies both employee time to delete the email and cost in bandwidth and software to receive and filter out the annoying spam emails.
Posted on June 14, 2004
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IT Moral At All-Time Low
An article on News.com reports that a study by Meta Group found that IT employee morale is at an
all-time low thanks to layoffs, lack of job growth and offshoring concerns. The low morale is pretty obvious to anyone who has visited sites like Is Your Job Going Offshore?
Posted on June 12, 2004
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Google Considers RSS
Google, which presently prefers the ATOM syndication tool, is considering adding RSS support. The news, broke by CNET's News.com, would be greatly appreciated by numerous bloggers and publishers that currently use the RSS format. Both RSS and ATOM are growing in use as web publishers adapt the new technology that makes it much easier for publishers to syndicate articles, news and blogs to readers.
Posted on June 9, 2004
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So Many Social Networking Sites
The number of social networking websites continues to expand. The trend that started with sites like Friendster, which helps people connected with each other through online profiles, has expanded to include niche sites like Dogster, which helps dog owners connect online. As writenews.com reports in its article on social networking, the trend is definitely booming and sites like MySpace.com, Friendster and Friendzy are generating large traffic numbers. However, it is still not clear if this will lead to revenues or if it fall short of expectations like the online communities trend a couple years ago.
Posted on June 4, 2004
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Yahoo's Anti-Spy Does Not Include Adware in Default
eWeek has reported that Yahoo is playing favorites with adware companies by not including adware as a default in Anti-Spy, a new beta feature on Yahoo's toolbar. According to eWeek, users who want to remove adware as well as spyware with the new toolbar, "must check a box each time they conduct a scan." While some people defend adware and claim it is different from spyware, many anti-spyware experts and privacy activists dot not see much of a difference.
Related Links: Anti-Spyware Resoures and Tools
Posted on June 3, 2004
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Hard Drives Increase to 400GB
Hitachi's deskstar 7K400 is a new hard drive with an impressive 400GB of storage space. PC World reports that the new hard drive is is speedy and "excels at streaming video". The list price for the new drive is $400.
Posted on June 2, 2004
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AOL Tries to Keep Subscribers During Broadband Storm
USA Today reports that AOL is trying to retain its 24 million of subscribers, despite the lure from new Broadband providers and cheap dial-up services. Many people are hanging onto the $24.99 service because they don't want to lose their email address. AOL also tries to keep people from unsubscribing by offering free content from Time Warner magazines and CNN. USA Today reported that AOL claims its "subscriber defections have stabilized", but some critics dispute these claims.
Source: USA Today
Related Links: Computer Center: Internet Service Providers
Posted on June 1, 2004
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Blogging Popularity Soars
The popularity of blogging continues to soar. As writenews.com points out, weblogs like Howard Dean's, Blog for America, are partly to thank for the rapid rise in blogging. Other reasons for blogging popularity including acceptance of the publishing format and rapid launch of new blog hosting products by ISPs, web hosting companies and search portals. Many media companies, authors and journalists have also launched blogs which has made the general web audience more familiar with the practice. At least for the short term (until something new comes along), blogging is sure to continue to grow.
Source: The Write News
Related Links: Blogging Resources
Posted on May 28, 2004
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Developer Shed Launches Scripts.com
Developer Shed, Inc., a provider of developer resources, has launched
Scripts.com, a scripting resource for developers and programmers.
Scripts.com joins Developer Shed's other websites, including Dev Shed,
ASP Free, Dev Articles, Dev Hardware and SEO Chat. Scripts.com is
updated daily in real time to eliminate duplicate entries, bad links
and inaccurate descriptions. New resources are added daily.
Scripts.com contains listings for over 8,300 scripts in 11 categories.
Features of Scripts.com include a search engine, a list of the most
viewed scripts and the highest rated scripts organized by category.
Users can rate scripts, email them to a friend and read and write
reviews. Registration is free.
Related Links: Webmaster's Corner: Script Resources
Posted on May 24, 2004
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80% of All U.S. Email is Spam
MessageLabs Inc., an email monitoring firm, has found that 2/3 of all email worldwide is spam and 80% of all email in the United States is spam. Brian Czarny, vice president of marketing at Message Labs, said that within one year spam could be over 95% of all email messages.
Source: MSNBC.com, Windows & .NET Magazine
Posted on May 23, 2004
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80% Of Web Users Read Online News
News is one of the most popular content features on the Web. Over 80%of web users claim they read online news, according to study cited by writenews.com. 1/4 of these people also said that online news reduces their need for news from other media. The most popular online news categories were weather, national news and international news.
Source: The Write News
Posted on May 21, 2004
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DoubleClick Acquires Performics
DoubleClick, a provider of advertising software for publishers, has purchased Perfomics, an affiliate network that reprsents over 200 merchants including America Online, Martha Stewart, Linens N' Things, Harry and David, Sears.com and Towers Records. Performics competes with companies like LinkShare and Commission Junction.
Source: ClickZ
Related Links: Affiliate Programs and Resources
Posted on May 18, 2004
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Yahoo and Google Remove WhenU Links
News.com reports that Yahoo and Google have removed links to controversial adware software company WhenU. Apparently, WhenU's links were removed for engaging in a practice called cloaking, a method used to manipulate search engine rankings. WhenU then blamed the cloaking problem on a search engine optimization firm.
Source: News.com
Posted on May 17, 2004
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Year 8 Webby Award Winners Named
This year's Webby Awards have been announced. These are annual awards given to top websites in a variety of categories by an organization of 480 members. There are also people's choice awards that are voted on by the general surfing public. Some of this year's winners include: iTunes, Google, Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, The Onion, Meetup, IgoUgo, Style.com, TheSmokingGun and Dean's Blog for America. A complete list of winners is available on writenews.com.
Source: The Write News
Posted on May 15, 2004
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Google Submits to the Banner
After heavily promoting and generating revenues from its text-only ads,
Google is now testing banner advertisements. Google refers to the banners as image ads, but they are no different from the regular banners you see on other websites.
Source: The Register
Posted on May 14, 2004
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Publishers See Danger in Text Messaging
Newspaper providers see text messaging as a potential threat. The rapid delivery of text messages can deliver news to consumers much faster than print or even a web news story. However, the amount of detail in a text message seems unlikely to be enough for someone really interested in the story. Even with the shortened lingo used in text messages such as MYOB (mind your own business) and LOL (laugh out loud), it is hard to imagine an entire news article condensed into two lines of text. However, text messaging could work for subjects like stock quotes, sports scores and weather forecasts.
Source: eWeek.com
Posted on May 8, 2004
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Apple: From Macs to Portables
Apple, best known for its Apple and Macintosh computer brands, is now establishing itself as a leading digital media and portable electronics brand. With its popular iTunes music download website and portable iPod music player, Apple is rapidly grabbing marketshare before competitors like Sony can even get on board. As Rob Enderle of TechNewsWorld says, "I'd love to see anyone argue that Apple isn't kicking the proverbial butts of the other player makers, including old stalwarts like Creative Labs and Sonic Blue as well as giants like Phillips, Thompson Electronics, GE and Samsung."
Source: TechNewsWorld.com
Related Links: Computer Center: Portable Electronics
Posted on May 3, 2004
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No Tax on ISPs Act Passes Senate
The senate has approved a tax ban (Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act (S. 150)) on web access with a 93-3 vote. Under the ban taxes on ISPs will not be allowed for another four years. However, ten states that are already taxing internet connections will be allowed to continue under a grandfather clause. S. 150 now moves to the House.
Source: Congress.gov, TheOrator.com, InternetNews.com
Posted on April 30, 2004
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Opting Out of Spam is Difficult
Tom Spring, a Senior Writer for PC World, recently ran a test to see how difficult it is to opt of spam emails now that the CAN SPAM law is active. Unfortunately, he found that opting out of spam emails is not a simple matter and many firms are not complying with the CAN SPAM law. He reported that it took him "four weeks, five phone calls, and 25 minutes" to remove himself from a My Sony membership rewards program. Spring continued more tests where he subscribed a new email address to dozens of email newsletters. But even after unsubscribing from all the lists he continued to receive email messages from several of the firms.
Source: PCWorld.com
Related Links: Anti-Spam Tools and Resources
Posted on April 27, 2004
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Broadband Use Dependent on Income
The most affluent Americans are the fastest demographic to switch to broadband internet connections. This is not suprising since broadband ISP costs tend to run higher than dial-up connections. Broadband use in households with incomes over $150,000 grew by 34% from March 2003 to March 2004, while households with incomes from $50,000 - $74,000 grew by only 11% in the same period. Almost 70% of web-connected homes with incomes over $150K now have broadband, while only 25% of web-connected homes with incomes under $25K have broadband access.
Source: The Write News
Related Links: Internet Service Providers
Posted on April 23, 2004
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People Surrender Passwords for Chocolate
Over 70% of people are willing to give up passwords for chocolate according to a survey conducted at the Infosecurity Europe trade show and reported by the BBC. The BBC also reported that in a survey conducted by RSA Security that many people readily admitted their passwords during the survey or revealed their mother's maiden name or a pet's name. People also admitted using the same password for multiple logins.
Source: BBC
Posted on April 20, 2004
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28 Pieces of Spyware Per PC
Consumers are rapidly being infected with sypware. EarthLink's Spy Audit has found that the average PC has 28 items of spyware. Anti-spyware software is needed to remove the annoying and damaging adware and spyware software. Adware, like Claria's GAIN system and software from
WhenU, can display annoying and unwanted pop-ups and other
types of ads on a personal computer. Spyware can secretly invade a personal computer and run stealth spam software or spy on the owner's keystrokes to steal online banking passwords and credit card numbers.
Sources: ShoppingBlog.com, BBC
Related Links: Spyware Removal Tools and Resources
Posted on April 19, 2004
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Gmail Privacy Concerns
Privacy advocates are complaining about Google's Gmail, a new email service offering 1 gigabyte (1000 megabytes) of free email storage. Privacy advocates are
concerned with Google's plans to place text ads on individual emails in the Gmail service. Google thinks the concerns are invalid because they claim no one at Google will actually be reading the email. Google says it will use computer algorithms to determine how ads are displayed.
Sources: BBC, Ecommerce Times
Posted on April 10, 2004
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Parents Unaware File Swapping is Illegal
A survey conducted by the MPAA and Nielsen NRG found that nearly 40% of
parents are unaware that file swapping of copyrighted materials is illegal.
More than 40% of parents who participated in the survey know that their kids download music and movies over the Internet, and 55% of them know their kids did not pay for the content, while another 15% is unsure. Kids are also teaching the technique to parents. The study found that 1/3 of those parents who have downloaded movies and music learned how to do so from their kids.
Source: The Write News
Posted on April 6, 2004
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Home Networking Skyrockets
Tons of people are doing some kind of home networking these days as they
connect to broadband, hook up a wireless modem for their laptop or connect multiple home computers together. U.S home networks will climb to 16.2 million in 2004 according to research firm IDC. Despite adaption by millions
of consumers the technology has still not become simple enough for people to
use the networking for media and entertainment -- most people are just using it to connect multiple computers to an Internet broadband connection.
Source: InternetNews.com,
Business Wire
Related Links: Networking Product Retailers, Computer Center
Posted on April 2, 2004
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Mamma.com Improves
Mamma.com announced that it has enhanced its power search and applied search
math functionality. Mamma.com now support search math, a form of advanced operators used to refine a query with quotations, plus and minus signs. Specifically, quotations ensure exact phrase matches are returned, and plus/minus signs ensure search terms are included or excluded from the results, respectively. Additional features applied to the power search include: customization of the description; length of results;
query term highlighting (keywords typed into the search box will be found and highlighted in the results); and customization of the number of results per page (users can select the number of results they would like to see on a results page). Both the option to open results in a new window and query refinement remain available on the power search page.
Posted on March 25, 2004
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Cell Phones Become Smart Phones
The trend in cell phones is for them to become software-powered
smart phones. At the annual U.S. cellular industry's trade show
cell phone companies were showing off these cell phones of the
future which incorporate tools and concepts found in handheld
devices. Popular phone software operating systems include Symbian
OS and Palm OS. Microsoft has also entered the marketplace and
Motorola has cut a deal with the software company to develop
Windows-based phones. Many cell phone software downloads can be found on Handago.com -- a website that is growing in popularity.
Source: Cebit-America, BBC
Posted on March 22, 2004
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Tucows Acquires BlogRolling.com
Tucows Inc. has acquired BlogRolling.com, a popular website and weblog tracking service. BlogRolling.com tracks over 500,000 weblog links for more than 32,000 users. Tucows said it will continue to support BlogRolling.com users and all weblog platforms as it continues to develop new features for the service.
Source: The Write News
Related Links: HowToWeb.com: Blogging
Posted on March 19, 2004
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Yahoo Debuts New Search Technology
Yahoo! Inc. has launched its own algorithmic search technology on Yahoo! Search to compete with Google. Yahoo said it expects to deploy the new search service on a worldwide basis over the next several weeks. Yahoo dropped Google's search results just a few weeks and now the two search power houses are going head to head.
Source: The Write News
Posted on March 14, 2004
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ISPs Team Up to Sue Spammers
Microsoft, AOL, Earthlink and Yahoo have joined forces and filed six lawsuits against the people behind the rising number of spam emails. AOL's top lawyer said they are going after the biggest and baddest spam offenders. Spamhaus reported that 90% of spam comes from about 200 spam gangs.
Source: BBC
Posted on March 11, 2004
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The Robots are Coming
The robots are finally here, although they are not yet as intelligent and useful as the ones on The Jetsons. The most popular home robot today is the Roomba, which is able to vaccuum floors without any assistance. Robots like the HelpMate, are also becoming common in hospitals -- they help carry around documents, equipment and medicine. Robots are also widely used in manufacturing, security, law enforcement and the military. As microprocessing power continues to increase, so should the power behind the robots.
Source: News.com
Posted on March 10, 2004
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Google Expands Index to 6 Billion Items
Google Inc. announced it has increased its web index to more than 6 billion items. Google's expansion comes as the company faces new competition from Yahoo, which recently dropped Google for its own new in-house search engine. Microsoft has also promised to come up with a more powerful search option. Google's collection of 6 billion items comprises 4.28 billion web pages, 880 million images, 845 million Usenet messages, and a new collection of book-related information pages.
Source: The Write News
Posted on March 6, 2004
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Virus Writers Insult Each Other
Security experts have discovered that some of the viruses going around are simply virus writers trying to insult each-other or one-up rival virus authors. There are some 20 different types of Mydoom, Netsky and Bagle viruses traveling through the web and many contain insults directed at other viruses. For example, the code inside the Netsky virus said, "Bagle - you are a looser!!!!". It certainly makes it appear that many of the virus writers are very young.
Source: MSNBC.com
Posted on March 3, 2004
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Googlemania
The web's leading search engine Google has become extraordinarily popular. But what effect does this have on the executives and employees at the white-hot pre-IPO company? Wired offers insight into the impact the buzz is having on employees and whether or not they can continue building a successful company without dwelling on the possible wealth and success (or failure) in their near future.
Source: Wired
Posted on March 1, 2004
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Anti-Spyware Bill Launched
Congress has launched an anti-spyware bill to target the annoying adware and invasive spyware programs that are secretly installed on people's computers. The bill is called the Spy Block Act (Software Principles Yielding Better Levels of Consumer Knowledge), S. 2131. Spy Block is sponsored by Senators Conrad Burns (R-MT), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA).
Source Internetnews.com, Spy Block Act
Related Links: Spyware Removal Tools and Resources
Posted on February 27, 2004
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