Miscellaneous

Podcast: Larry Magid and Declan McCullagh talk about new Whitehouse.gov

By the time President Obama lifted his hand from the Lincoln Bible, White House staff updated the presidential Web site Whitehouse.gov to reflect the new administration. The site, which now includes a video of the president's swearing in and inaugural address, also includes his agenda, which is pretty much lifted from his campaign Web site.

The site, according to a blog post from White House New Media Director Macon Philips, is part of the administration's plan to make government more transparent and more open to citizen participation. Philips promises that the site "will feature timely and … Read more

BlackBerry app store open for submissions

Research In Motion has begun soliciting applications for the BlackBerry Application Storefront, which is due to go live in March.

Submissions for applications opened on Monday. RIM announced in October that it would be launching an app store in March of this year, a move that will bring it in line with rivals such as Apple, Google, and Palm, each of whom has or is about to launch their own on-device app stores.

The vendor guidelines listed on RIM's Web site make it explicit that the Canadian handset manufacturer "reserves the right to accept, deny, or remove any … Read more

Satellites, balloons, and math used to count inauguration crowd

U.S. President Barack Obama was sworn in on Tuesday in Washington. But the number of people who braved the frigid D.C. weather to watch the historic event could have been anywhere between 800,000 and 3 million, depending on who you talk to.

Researchers have projected widely varying figures for the event's attendance, based on satellites circling above the clouds, aerostat balloons tethered blocks away, television coverage of the crowd, and good old-fashioned mathematics calculations.

Steve Doig, a journalism professor at Arizona State University who specializes in crowd counting, said he is estimating there were 800,000 … Read more

Logitech to cut up to 600 jobs

Clarification at 7:40 a.m. PST: The percentage figure for net income has been fixed.

Logitech International announced late Monday plans to cut 550 to 600 jobs, as it posted a steep drop in its financial performance and predicted continued weakness in the months ahead.

The company expects to make the bulk of its job cuts in its fiscal fourth quarter, which started January 1, and take a charge of $16 million to $18 million during the quarter. Overall, Logitech expects to take a $20 million to $24 million charge over the next 12 months.

Logitech, a peripherals giant … Read more

Consequences of social-network parental controls

Last week I wrote about the final report of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force that dispelled some myths about predator danger, pointing out that--while predators remain a threat--teens are far more likely to be bullied, harassed, or even sexually solicited by another young person than by an adult predator.

The task force, on which I served as a representative of the nonprofit ConnectSafely.org, was asked by a group of state attorneys general to evaluate technical solutions for keeping kids safe online. One of the most heralded technologies--supported by several attorneys general--would be to mandate technology that would validate … Read more

Week in review: Changes at the helm

One tech pioneer welcomed a new chief executive this week, while another lost its leader--at least temporarily.

After months of insisting that Steve Jobs' health was a private matter with no impact on the company, Apple's chief executive announced that he will step down from his post while recuperating from a hormone imbalance. His absence will stretch until the end of June.

Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, will run the company during Jobs' absence, according to an e-mail Jobs sent to Apple employees that was released to the media.

In an e-mail to employees, Jobs called the … Read more

NY cancels contract for emergency worker radio network

The state of New York has canceled a $2.1 billion contract to build a wireless network for use by statewide emergency workers across, according to The New York Times.

Along with the termination letter to Tyco subsidiary M/A-COM, the state's chief technology officer, Melanie Mayberry-Stewart, complained that M/A-COM had not addressed technical problems in work that was already done, the report said.

The newspaper has reported that state officials are close to ending the project because problems with tests of the network had them worried the system would not work properly.

Lawyers for the contractor said … Read more

Podcast: Harvard Law's John Palfrey on Internet Safety Task Force Report

Harvard Law Professor and former Berkman Center director John Palfrey has been a busy guy. For most of the past year he has chaired the Internet Safety Technical Task Force which, as I explain in this longer post, just released a report showing that predator danger for kids is not what a lot of people feared.

I sat down with Palfrey Washington DC on Wednesday January 14th just before he took the stage at the State of the Net conference to deliver the task force's final report.

As I disclose in the podcast, I was a member of that … Read more

Net threat to minors less than feared

WASHINGTON -- A long awaited report from the Internet Safety Technical Task Force concludes that children and teens are less vulnerable to sexual predation than many have feared. The report also questions the efficacy and necessity of some commonly prescribed remedies designed to protect young people.

The task force was formed as a result of a joint agreement between MySpace and 49 state attorneys general.

Over the past couple of years, several state AGs have been looking into potential dangers to youth, and some have called for social-network sites to use age verification technology to confirm the ages of users … Read more