Articles by date
14 February 2007
be: Google loses court battle with Belgian publishers (The Guardian)
Google could face fines of €25,000 a day after losing a court battle with Belgian publishers over the scope of its Google News service. A court in Brussels ruled today that the search engine had infringed the copyright of several newspapers after it included their stories in its news services.
Eight nations set to get $150 laptops (ZDNet)
From Brazil to Pakistan, some of the world's poorest children will peer across the digital divide this month--reading electronic books, shooting digital video, creating music and chatting with classmates online.
United Nations global audit of web accessibility report now available (pdf) (Nomensa Executive Summary)
The United Nations Department of Social and Economic Affairs commissioned Nomensa to conduct this audit to determine how accessible the Internet is for persons with disabilities. The report reveals that 97% of websites tested fail to achieve the minimum web accessibility level.
us: Networks and film makers accuse Google of encouraging pirates (The Guardian)
America's biggest media companies have accused Google of knowingly encouraging copyright theft by suggesting to illegal movie download sites that they place adverts to appear in response to search terms such as "pirated" and "bootleg".
13 February 2007
Teraflop chip hints at the future (BBC)
A chip the size of a fingernail and capable of more than a trillion calculations per second is unveiled by Intel.
12 February 2007
us: RSA panel addresses Net threats to children (CNet)
The amount of unwanted sexual material that teens and preteens are exposed to on the Internet has skyrocketed in recent years, yet only a fraction of those children are likely to report it to an adult.
Senator to propose surveillance of illegal images (CNet)
A forthcoming bill in the U.S. Senate lays the groundwork for a national database of illegal images that Internet service providers would use to automatically flag and report suspicious content to police.
New Energy Star ratings for PCs on the way (CNet)
Standards for energy-efficient PCs are about to take a step forward for the first time in more than a decade.
Price of cybercrime tools shrinks (CNet)
It's becoming cheaper and easier to get hold of the tools needed to launch a cybercrime attack, according to security company RSA.
10 February 2007
Hackers target core internet computers (The Guardian)
The big story of the day is hackers believed to be from Asia mounted what The Guardian describes as "the most significant attack since 2002". The Guardian quotes Paul Levins from ICANN noting the severity of the attack, and that attacks such as this result in a constant upgrading of the technology, making it harder in the future.
DNS Attack: Only a Warning Shot? (Dark Reading)
The attack by the hackers was described as a "likely a test-run for a potentially larger and more disruptive attack" according to researchers, so claims Dark Reading. Further, the attacks were the latest in a series of attacks that began late last year, something that was only a matter of time. Dark Reading give a good outlines of the attacks. The story quotes David Ulevitch, CEO of OpenDNS who says "Yesterday's attack was likely a precursor to a larger attack. The rise of DNS attacks in the last year has been worrisome. I believe the attack yesterday and the night before were tests to see how far someone could push the limits."
Internet security issues prompt $100 million overhaul (International Herald Tribune)
VeriSign announced it will spend more than $100 million in a massive infrastructure upgrade, an announcement brought forward a couple of days following the denial of service attack this week. The investment will result in the number of DNS queries capable of being handled rising from 400 billion a day to more than 4 trillion a day.
09 February 2007
The slow, painful death of journalism in Russia by Oksana Chelysheva (The Independent)
Did you read about the death of press freedom in Russia the other day? Well, probably not. Independent journalism doesn't expire in a single, dramatic moment. It's more like a series of small blows, leading not to out-and-out demise but suffocation and a life-sucking loss of morale.
at: Vienna busts huge child porn ring (BBC)
Austria has uncovered an international child pornography network involving more than 2,360 suspects from 77 countries, the interior minister said.
Net safety day marked worldwide (BBC)
Efforts to make the net less risky for children are being marked by the fourth Internet Safety Day on 6 February.
Germany outlaws secret police snooping (Out-Law)
Internet snooping on suspected criminals' computers has been outlawed in Germany. Police will only be able to rifle through computers in a physical search at a premises, according to a new court ruling.
The true value of mobile phones to developing markets (sub req'd) (McKinsey)
An estimate of the economic benefits of wireless activity must include not only wireless operators but also auxiliary players and end users.
us: NY Senator Wants iPods Out of Crosswalks (E-Commerce Times)
New York pedestrians could find themselves on the wrong side of the law just for crossing the street while chatting on a cell phone or listening to an iPod if state Senator Carl Kruger gets his way. The New York lawmaker plans to introduce legislation to make it illegal to use portable electronic devices such as a BlackBerry or PlayStation Portable game console while crossing the street. The legislation comes after the deaths of two pedestrians in Sen. Kruger's Brooklyn district within the past five months.
Sexy content may get dedicated home in cyberspace (Computer World)
Public comments on the proposed .xxx domain are due on Monday according to a story in Computer World. The story reports 500 email submissions have already been received by ICANN. Also noted is the controversy around the proposal, with many religious groups opposed as well as some operators of pornographic websites. Bret Fausett is quoted as saying "There's been a lot of mixed messages sent by ICANN over the years, but I think we're going to get .xxx this time", noting he thinks it will be approved in the first quarter of 2007. Stuart Lawley is also interviewed.
08 February 2007
Internet Boom in China Is Built on Virtual Fun (New York Times)
When Pony Ma, the 35-year-old co-founder of China's hottest Internet company, sends a message to friends and colleagues, the image that pops up on their screens shows a spiky-haired youth wearing flashy jeans and dark sunglasses. That is not how Mr. Ma actually looks or acts, but it is an image that fits well with the youthful, faintly rebellious nature of a company led by somebody who may be China's closest approximation to Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the young founders of Google. In the two years since Mr. Ma's company, Tencent, went public in Hong Kong, it has grown into a powerhouse that has crushed everyone else in the field.
07 February 2007
uk: Paedophiles jailed for hatching plot on internet to rape two teenage sisters (The Guardian)
Three paedophiles who met in an internet chatroom have been jailed for using the web to hatch a plot to rape two young sisters.
06 February 2007
I hate Macs (The Guardian)
Unless you have been walking around with your eyes closed, and your head encased in a block of concrete, with a blindfold tied round it, in the dark - unless you have been doing that, you surely can't have failed to notice the current Apple Macintosh campaign starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, which has taken over magazines, newspapers and the internet in a series of brutal coordinated attacks aimed at causing massive loss of resistance. ... I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don't use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.
Rising number of kids exposed to online porn (Sydney Morning Herald)
More children and teens are being exposed to online pornography, mostly by accidentally viewing sexually explicit websites while surfing the internet, researchers say.
Pecker pipped in porno pickle (Out-Law)
Only famous people who trade on their name have any chance of winning control of internet addresses containing their name, according to a decision by WIPO.
Direct Search White Paper Reports Traffic Growth & Sustainability (news release) (Internet Commerce Association)
The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) completed an industry research study on the impacts of the Direct Search business and the consistency and sustainability of the traffic. Study included an analysis on multiple domain portfolios that represent over 30 million unique visitors per month.
