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30 Dec 2010 21:23

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Culture: Survey participants deny paying for online porn

  • 2% of Internet users pay for pornography source
  • » Really? Only 2%? Not that we’re, uhh, experts on online pornography, but 2% sounds really, really low. These statistics are hard to come by, but one site reported that over $3,000 is spent on pornography every minute. We smell shenanigans. And by “shenanigans,” we mean “people lying to an interviewer because they’re embarrassed about paying for porn.” On the other hand, considering how ubiquitous free porn is on the internet, maybe 2% isn’t that low after all.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 1 Comment • Permalink

21 Dec 2010 10:19

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Tech: The Woz on net neutrality: Big telecom screws customers

  • Every time and in every way that the telecommunications careers have had power or control, we the people wind up getting screwed. Every audience that I speak this statement and phrase to bursts into applause.
  • Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak • Offering up his take on the whole net neutrality battle, an argument he explains in great detail by noting how he, being the inventive guy he is, has run up against the big telecommunications companies multiple times in his life, first with his dial-a-joke service (which he had to stop because the cost proved to be way too expensive), and then, years later, with his nice-guy attempt to wire up his entire neighborhood with free cable access (no, really). The Woz’s main argument in this case? “Local ISP’s should provide connection to the Internet but then it should be treated as though you own those wires and can choose what to do with them when and how you want to,” he writes, “as long as you don’t destruct them.” That’s something that a lot of people can certainly get behind, for sure. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Dec 2010 10:40

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Tech: FCC could compromise on net neutrality policy this week

  • In case you’re concerned about this net neutrality mess, you might want to keep an eye out this week. See, the FCC is about to decide on a compromise proposal which would force network providers to accept all traffic, while conceding that it’s OK for them to manage network congestion and charge users more based on their usage. This policy would have the support of the three Democratic members on the FCC’s board, but the two Republican members would prefer that the Internet remain free of regulation. Which we, by the way, seriously don’t understand. This is one of those cases where, if the government doesn’t step in, consumers will seriously get trampled on. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Dec 2010 11:55

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Tech: Posted without comment: The best net neutrality argument we’ve seen

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Nov 2010 16:09

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Tech: The Pirate Bay’s legal troubles – better in some ways, worse in others

  • good Three of the four principals behind Bittorrent site The Pirate Bay got their prison sentences cut to under a year – the fourth was ill and will be sentenced later.
  • bad While their sentences were cut, the monetary damages to be paid to various content providers were raised – from $4.2 million to roughly $6.6 million. source
  • » But really, the thing to take from this is … Despite the legal troubles the Swedish site has faced lately, it’s still up. Can we just offer them a hand for somehow keeping this site up despite all of the trouble they’ve been facing? That’s kind of amazing.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Nov 2010 10:42

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Tech: Most popular plugin ever: Adblock Plus. Publishers grow very sad

  • 100
    million     number of downloads the plugin, most popular on Firefox, has had since it was released in 2006
  • 12.3
    million     number of active users the plugin currently has, which means millions in lost advertising income source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Oct 2010 09:54

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World: The Internet is ready to hit a major milestone this year

  • 6.9B the number of people currently living on this huge freaking planet
  • 2B+ the number of those people who will be online by the end of the year
  • 162M the number of new ‘net users from developing nations in 2010 source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

11 Oct 2010 19:25

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Tech: “Free Public Wi-Fi” isn’t free, public or wi-fi. It’s nothing.

  • Ever find yourself hanging around an airport with your laptop? Or maybe you’re in the middle of a coffee shop, looking to read your favorite blog (hi guys!). Maybe you’ve seen the “Free Public Wi-Fi” computer-to-computer network floating around, always tempting you to click on it in hopes that you get free public wi-fi. And it never, ever works. Here’s why: It’s a bug that older versions of Windows XP have had for approximately four years. It doesn’t connect you to anything. It’s an error. One that MS has already fixed, by the way, but still shows up on un-updated machines. And if you’re using one of those fairly-common computers, you too may find yourself bitten by that zombie if you join that network. Or “hpsetup.” Or “linksys.” Sorry to burst your bubble, moochers. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Oct 2010 10:19

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World: North Korea appears ready to expand its internet usage

  • 1,024 .kp domains are ready for use anytime source
  • » Expanded usage elsewhere: While North Korea is keeping a tight lid on internet usage within the country, many foreign reporters in the country this weekend noted that they could actually use the internet on THEIR OWN COMPUTERS. Before, they had to use officially designated computers to do that. (By the way, check out the design on this site. Epic.)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Sep 2010 10:46

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U.S.: Obama wants to wiretap the Internet: Why you should worry

  • They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique, and now pervasive, architecture of the Internet. They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.
  • Center for Democracy and Technology vice president James X. Dempsey • Explaining why the Obama administration is suddenly making a push to add wiretapping functions to the entire Internet – functions which they haven’t had and draw controversy every single time they come up. Law enforcement agents argue that it’s necessary to make it easier to do their jobs. Wanna know our feeling? If Obama follows through with this, it has the possibility to negate much of the positive goodwill he has among the Left. You thought Bush’s wiretapping desires were bad? This is miles worse. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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