Page 5 of 15
The splintering of the Internet is not a new phenomenon
There has been increasing discussion around the concept of the “splinternet”: that proprietary devices like the iPad or proprietary sites like Facebook are acting to splinter the old, connected Web into discrete, fragmented, and self-contained units. But the “golden age” was hardly golden, and today’s Web is, if anything, better than it used to be in terms of interconnectivity. Certainly it’s important to recognize fragmentation issues today, but let’s not pretend it’s a new problem.
April 2010 / 3 min.
The Statute of Anne: “An Act for the Encouragement of Learning”
300 years ago Saturday, the Statute of Anne created the first modern system of copyright.
April 2010 / 2 min.
Does the funding of anti-climate change groups by Koch Industries invalidate their position?
A Greenpeace investigation has identified a little-known, privately owned US oil company as the paymaster of global warming sceptics in the US and Europe.
March 2010 / 2 min.
Yelp sued, argues lawsuit is without merit
February 2010 / 0 min.
Wait, Second Life still exists? And universities still use it?
I was surprised to read in the Chronicle of Higher Education that universities are still using Second Life, a “virtual worlds” system I honestly thought died in 2007. No one I know ever used it. Why is this, considering the people I know tend to be early adopters of pretty much everything technological?
February 2010 / 3 min.
Highlights of the Google Books settlement hearing
Norman Oder updates us on the arguments at the Google Books settlement hearing. I found the several following points made by speakers at the hearing particulary interesting.
February 2010 / 2 min.
Who supports and who opposes the Google Books settlement
At the Google Books fairness hearing, who supports and who opposes the settlement?
February 2010 / 2 min.
Terms of use for application programming interfaces (TOS for APIs)
Terms of use are critical. Most allow for the revocation of access if the API provider decides to do so. If that happens to you, you may have little recourse. Make sure you understand the terms before you build a business on top of someone else’s API.
February 2010 / 5 min.
Dear Starbucks and AT&T: fix your WiFi!
Technology on the road has a reputation for being finicky. Some of this difficulty is unavoidable. But other technology challenges are easily remedied through decent design and forethought.
February 2010 / 5 min.
Retention of transactional Web browsing data
The FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years.
February 2010 / 3 min.