blue

What's behind the NY bills to ban anonymous online comments

In New York state, legislators in both chambers have proposed bills that would force Web sites to police the identities of anonymous commenters. 

Under the proposed Internet Protection Act (S06779), when anyone complains about an anonymous (or pseudonymous) comment, the Web site must make the commenter attach their "real name" to the comment or the anonymous comment would by law have to be removed. 

That's right: if someone doesn't like your comment the Web site will be legally bound to make you reveal your identity. The accused commenter will also be required to verify … Read more

Sorting the Great British Firewall

The U.K. is holding a fiery debate over the free and open Internet and how to protect kids from the perils of online porn. The drama-filled saga has enough cartoonish details and self-serving characters in it to fill out an entire Guy Ritchie film -- sadly, sans the comic relief. Or even cute little dogs.

Even though content filters are available, religious organizations and conservatives think the government needs to force ISPs into default filtering. On this bandwagon, loud and proud, are tabloids such as the Sun and Daily Mail.

Under the default filter plans, customers of internet service … Read more

Nintendo phases out Aqua Blue 3DS

Gaming giant Nintendo noted today that it will soon cease production of the Aqua Blue 3DS in Japan.

The announcement comes a few months after the debut of a Cobalt Blue 3DS in Japan, which seems likely to arrive in the U.S. sometime in the near future. For those of you still keeping up with the crazy color calamity, Nintendo also plans a Midnight Purple 3DS shade, set to debut in May. … Read more

Unpacking the MegaUpload mega-conspiracy theories

What recent international cyber-bust involves Alicia Keys and the RIAA, elite anti-terror police, missing evidence and a bad warrant, a multi-billion dollar IPO, the world's biggest file-sharing website, and a very large man who owns 14 Mercedes-Benz cars with license plates that say things like "MAFIA" and "HACKER"?

Nope, it's not Lex Luthor's latest caper. I'm talking about the MegaUpload bust. And the increasingly interesting question of whose interests were actually served as a result.

In January, the U.S. Department of Justice, Homeland Security's ICE and members of New Zealand … Read more

Verizon's Motorola Droid Razr now in blue

Verizon today announced that the Motorola Droid Razr Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone will be available in select Verizon stores with a blue finish.

If you don't see it in a store near you, just wait until May 17 to see it in all Verizon retailers and online at Verizon.com.

While we haven't seen the blue phone in the real world, I have high hopes that it'll look pretty good, in light of how well Motorola did with the other colors in the Droid Razr spectrum, black, white, and purple.

The blue Droid Razr will come … Read more

The 404 1,049: Where so, it's come to this (podcast)

Here's another reason not to blow your cash on those Beats by Dr. Dre headphones: the NYPD is reporting that the headphones have become the new top target for thieves based on their $500 resale value. With dozens of Beats heists occurring over the last four months alone, your best bet is to avoid the red "b" altogether and invest in a better pair of cans.… Read more

Say 'hello' to CISPA, it will remind you of SOPA

Meet CISPA.

You may not have heard of it yet because it's been flying under the radar. It's a lot like PIPA, which was a lot SOPA (I'm sure you heard of those). Actually, some people are calling it "worse than SOPA," and it's sponsored by a congressman who thinks the death penalty should be considered for Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking military information to Wikileaks.

Be worried: they think we stopped paying attention after SOPA -- so they made this.

CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (PDF) (aka H.R. 3523), … Read more

WD ships ultrabook-friendly Scorpio Blue hard drive

When it comes to ultrabooks, you have to pick between a solid-state drive (SSD) or a hard drive as the main storage drive. The former is generally limited in terms of capacity, expensive but very fast, while the latter offers much more storage space for a much lower cost.

If you're willing to go with a hard drive, WD now offers another option.

The company announced today the availability of the new single-platter WD Scorpio Blue hard drive. The drive still uses the 2.5-inch standard but is just 7mm thick, as opposed to 9.5mm in regular laptop hard drives. … Read more

At last, broadband in the boonies, but at a price

PENASCO, N.M. -- After five years of enduring Internet access that provided dial-up speeds for uploading and rarely exceeded 1Mbps down, I now cruise along in my home office on the edge of a wilderness area at 7.5Mbps for downloads. My uploads are 30 times faster at 1.5Mbps.

The path to my recent broadband liberation began on a day last fall when that slow satellite connection went dark for an entire day. A malfunction with the satellite literally caused it to shut down and turn away from the Earth. In the process of reporting the story for CNET, I came across a tangentially related tidbit about the launch of a new satellite, called ViaSat-1, which would soon be in orbit and providing new speed and capacity for my satellite Internet provider (WildBlue, which is a subsidiary of ViaSat).

I shared the good news with my family, but didn't plan to hold my breath for the upgrade to trickle down anytime soon through the layers of middlemen and resellers standing between that beautiful new bird in orbit and my Wi-Fi router. If you've read the rest of this week-long series or live in the sticks yourself, you know how new and exciting infrastructure can remain out of grasp, even when it's physically so close to home.… Read more