Internet topics
Best free online applications
As people have begun to do more and more on the Web instead of on the desktop, many applications and services have become available online. Many of these are startups and they come and go so it is not always easy to know which are worth trying. Even Google applications can be rough or transient [...]
How we get our news
The Pew Internet & American Life Project has published a study, Understanding the Participatory News Consumer, that looks at how we get our news and how Americans’ news consumption habits are changing. The reports says many are seeing news as a social, participatory activity:
To a great extent, people’s experience of news, especially on the internet, [...]
What do behavioral trackers know about you?
It’s no secret that advertisers want to track what you do on the Internet as much as possible. The more they know about potential advertising targets, the more they can tailor ads so they will attract interest. In fact, there are repositories of extensive data gleaned from tracking cookies. If you would like to [...]
Google to be an ISP?
Google wants to set up an experimental network with the blazing speed of 1 gigabit/sec. The Official Google Blog says:
We’re planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access [...]
Web Security: Are You Part Of The Problem?
That’s the title of an article at Smashing Magazine and it’s about a problem that the technology types seem to have trouble understanding—namely, that PCs and Web security are too complex for average PC users to understand. That means that hundreds of millions of people are going to do insecure things or get infected by [...]
How entrenched mediocrity can persist
As far as I can tell, a large majority of computer professionals believe that the Internet Explorer (IE) browser is inferior to Firefox or the up-and-coming Chrome. Nonetheless, IE still claims over 60% of worldwide usage. IE usage has been slipping but the majority of the world still uses what is generally considered an inferior [...]
Comcast changes its name
The cable and communications company Comcast has a poor reputation with consumers. Perhaps that is why it is changing its name to “Xfinity”. Maybe the management thinks we won’t recognize the company as the same old Comcast. In any event, posts are appearing making fun of the new name. Here’s a selection:
The Consumerist“Comcast has decided [...]
How’s that for commentary?
Like other blogs, this one gets a lot of spam comments. You don’t see them because there are filters in place that are quite good plus I occasionally delete some spam that slips through. Just to show you the kind of thing you are being spared, here’s one from last night (minus the link it [...]
Short takes
Here’s a quick summary of some links that caught my eye this past week:
LaptopFriendlyCafes Finds Great Wi-Fi Spots WorldwideLifehacker says, “LaptopFriendlyCafes.com lists more than 300 places around the globe that have plugs, Wi-Fi, 3G, and, oh yes, coffee.” Link is here.
Comcast running out of IPv4 addresses, beginning IPv6 trialArs Technica reports on the growing shortage [...]
Apple iPad frenzy broke the Internet
The mass frenzy before, during, and after the announcement of the iPad was bad enough as an indication of the paucity of ideas in the blogosphere. Even scarier was the fact that all the activity brought down significant chunks of the Internet. I couldn’t get on ZDNet or some other sites to do some [...]
A symbol to help with online privacy
There is much concern about privacy issues associated with methods used by online advertisers and merchants. A small step towards informing consumers about advertising practices is the introduction of a symbol (shown below). The symbol will provide a link that will open a page explaining how the advertiser uses a consumer’s Web surfing history and [...]
