internet

Republican senator predicts permanent Net tax ban will pass

Congressional action on a soon-to-expire ban on Internet access taxes may be slow going at the moment, but members of the head of the Senate Republican High Tech Task Force says he believes there are enough votes to make the law permanent.

"People use the Internet to access information and purchase goods and services," Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) said in a call with reporters on Thursday morning. "It is not appropriate to tax someone for walking into a library or a shopping mall. On that rationale, we should not be taxing the Internet."

If Congress lets … Read more

All publicity isn't as good as it used to be

"All publicity is good publicity" It may have been true at some point, but it certainly is not true today. Nor will it be true forever more.

Instead, the motto has changed to "All Publicity is Abused Publicity"

The reality is that in todays ultra competitive chase to get your attention , if something you say or do is seen by more than 100 people, someone is going to attempt to re-purpose it to their own benefit or amusement.

In essence, the internet has put us all under a form of digital arrest.

"Everything we say … Read more

Midyear Internet threat reports show professional criminals hard at work

It's September, so it's time for Internet security companies to release their annual reports and surveys about the threats seen in the first six months of the year. The reports from IBM, Arbor Networks (free registration required), and Symantec (in PDF) each looked at different areas of the Internet in specific but generally found that botnets are on the rise, and that the tools used for attack have gone professional with less noise from mere amateurs. Two of the reports went to find the top three vendors most affected by newly disclosed vulnerabilities were Microsoft, Apple and Oracle, … Read more

Small Webcaster deals: Bad for Net DJ biz?

There appears to be relief ahead for at least some small Webcasters that balked at a new requirement to pay higher royalty rates to musicians and record labels.

SoundExchange, the nonprofit record industry spin-off charged with collecting the mandatory royalty payments, said in a Tuesday press release 24 "small" Internet radio outfits have signed agreements guaranteeing they will owe through 2010 the same rates they have paid since 1998. Others are in the process of signing on, SoundExchange said. It was not immediately clear which radio stations had already reached agreements.

Under the deal first offered in May, … Read more

'Hacker-proof' system? You be the judge

Aerospace giant European Aeronautic Defence and Space has introduced a "hacker-proof" encryption technology that it claims will revolutionize Internet security and bring "cryptography into the 21st century."

The system, called "Ectocryp," was developed for military and business applications by researchers and engineers at EADS' Defence and Security Systems division in Newport, South Wales. The team relied on technology developed by the U.K.'s Government Communications Headquarters, sister agency to the NSA and formerly known as Government Code and Cypher School, of German Enigma fame.

The system owes its success to the "lightning … Read more

Plusmo: A backstage pass to the mobile Web

Plusmo's mobile widgets application is a cool way to read RSS feeds on your cell phone or PDA, but that's not the only reason it was named a finalist on the Webware 100 list.

In true Webware fashion, Plusmo's site offers hands-on excitement--the chance to publish and share widget mash-ups and create an iPhone widget from templates. Users can also make personal blogs available as a Plusmo widget, and can install a browser bookmarklet or Yahoo plug-in to snag feeds while they surf.

Getting started with Plusmo

Multiple carriers and platforms, small screen sizes, and a glut of information out there make quickly and easily accessing mobile content a downright challenge. That's why interestingly (and wisely), Plusmo steers clear of browser turf wars raging among third-party mobile browsers like Opera Mini (new review) and Minimo (hands-on review); a good move.… Read more

Frog: The toad that would be prince

From the many positive announcements written about Frog since May 2007, a fresh, interesting approach to accessing the mobile Web shouldn't have exceeded expectations, especially six months after the initial release. After all, GeekSugar, MobileCrunch, and The Boy Genius Report all gave Frog nods as a viable home page alternative. After trying it out for myself, all I saw of Frog were warts.

Unlike traditional browser solutions that optimize page viewing, Frog adopts a portal model for accessing the Web. Nine quick-launch buttons each take you to a Web site optimized for mobile viewing.

While creating a Frog account online, users can add button icons for favorite sites from scores of options (good.) Four, to be exact. The other five slots are chosen for you and won't budge if you try to swap them out (bad.) However, it might be less of a problem if you already use MSN Weather, Google, Orbitz, RestaurantRow.com, and Fandango steadily and don't intend to swap the orientation on the screen.… Read more

Firefox passes 400 million downloads

Firefox just passed the 400 million download mark, according to the Spread Firefox site for promoting the open-source, extendable Web browser.

That number shouldn't be confused with actual installations, Mozilla's public relations folks rightly caution. (I'm sure I've downloaded it at least a dozen times this year, and I'm only using copies on three computers at present. On the flip side, there are any number of other ways to get Firefox, including Linux installations.) Nevertheless, 400 million is an achievement worth noting, given that just a few years ago it looked like Microsoft had the … Read more

Hands-on: Opera Mini 4 beta 2 for BlackBerry

Today Opera announced the latest release of its mobile browser, Opera Mini 4 beta 2. What makes this build stand out are some software trinkets designed especially for BlackBerry devices. Webware.com editor Josh Lowensohn described them in a news release. Now it's time to describe their effect on a luminescent BlackBerry Pearl I just happened to get in my possession.

In most cases, Opera Mini 4 beta 2 performed exactly as promised--beautifully fast and with a clean interface. I was able to scroll with the pointer mouse (a hand with index finger extended), play with screen width, and take advantage of zooming and scrolling with keypad numbers.… Read more

What does the Earthlink shake-up mean for the future of city wifi?

Update: SFGate reported this morning that Earthlink will be withdrawing their contract with the City of San Francisco to provide wireless internet. It is unclear what the City's plans for future broadband development are at this point in time.

It was almost four years ago that Philadelphia became the first major city in the US to announce their plans to blanket their city with wi-fi connectivity. It was a big deal, and other cities followed suit using a variety of approaches.

After Pennsylvania passed legislation prohibiting municipalities from getting into the wireless business, Philadelphia partnered with Earthlink to develop a wireless infrastructure that offers free service in certain parks while offering wifi in private homes and business at market rates with subsidies for the poor. In San Francisco, where I live, the bid was awarded to a partnership between Google and Earthlink. With today's news that Earthlink is restructuring its company and losing the head of it's municipal wi-fi intiative, it remains unclear what the future of Earthlink's projects will be and what effect this news will have on the future of other city-wide wi-fi initiatives.