Originally Google had considered acquiring Facebook—a prospect that held no interest for Facebook's executives—but an investment was another enticing option, aligning the Internet's two most important companies. Facebook was more than a fast-growing social network. It was, potentially, an enormous source of personal data. Internet users behaved differently on Facebook than anywhere else online: They used their real names, connected with their real friends, linked to their real email addresses, and shared their real thoughts, tastes, and news. Google, on the other hand, knew relatively little about most of its users other than their search histories and some browsing activity.
Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network's Plan to Dominate the Internet
One, HB1405, would require Internet vendors to collect the Hawaii gross excise tax (GET) on purchases from Hawaii. 1405 would treat “advertising associates” in Hawaii as the “substantial nexus” required by Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court case.The other, SB1678, would call for Hawaii to join 23 other states in adopting a cooperative “streamlined” (euphemism) national Internet sales and use tax. 1678 could not be effective until Congress passes a law to authorize this bill under the Commerce Clause.
ThinkTech | ThinkTech blog, ThinkTech Hawaii | honoluluadvertiser.com | Honolulu, Hawaii
In a memo to senior military leaders, Gates said he will recommend that President Obama designate that the new command be led by the director of the National Security Agency, the world's largest electronic intelligence-gathering agency. The current NSA director, Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, is expected to be awarded a fourth star and to lead the cyber-command.
Gates Establishes Cyber-Defense Command - washingtonpost.com
Free Press, a group that advocates the idea of an open internet — that is, one in which consumers have the right to browse the web and run internet applications without restrictions — is the latest of several organizations to call out Apple for its inconsistencies. Free Press alleges that Apple crippled SlingPlayer, a TV-streaming application for iPhone, so that it would only work on a Wi-Fi connection; the initial version worked with a 3G cellular network connection as well as Wi-Fi. The SlingPlayer restriction is inconsistent with Apple’s approval of the Major League Baseball application, which provides live-streaming of sports events on both Wi-Fi and 3G connections, the group said.
How Apple, AT&T Are Closing the Mobile Web | Epicenter | Wired.com
The NYSE Euronext said that BlueNext, its majority-owned environmental trading exchange, is partnering with the China-Beijing Environmental Exchange, to set up an international carbon-trading related information platform. The two firms signed a deal that includes: a cross-marketing partnership; and, a comprehensive data sharing agreement that will promote investment- and buyer information of Clean Development Mechanism projects in China.
Investment Executive : U.S. exchanges expand presence in carbon market
The new clearing house, New York Portfolio Clearing, will combine the NYSE Euronext's U.S. futures exchange and DTCC 's Fixed Income Clearing Corp. to offer risk management, clearing and settlement efficiencies for U.S. fixed income securities and derivatives.
CME has rival in new NY clearing house | Crain's Chicago Business
As a prominent privacy advocate, Timothy Sparapani, former senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that Internet companies have too much control over consumers' data. The self-described "privacy zealot" didn't join Facebook until seven months ago because he was uneasy about revealing personal information on the site.
Facebook Taps Privacy Hawk as Lobbyist - washingtonpost.com
The new clearing house, New York Portfolio Clearing, will combine the NYSE Euronext's U.S. futures exchange and DTCC 's Fixed Income Clearing Corp. to offer risk management, clearing and settlement efficiencies for U.S. fixed income securities and derivatives.The deal could eat into CME Group's dominance of the interest-rate futures clearing business in the U.S. Currently, CME accounts for more than 95% of that market.
CME has rival in new NY clearing house | Crain's Chicago Business
The U.S. government has a 2009 R&D budget of about $143 billion, and only about $300 million will go to cybersecurity research, said Liesyl Franz, vice president of information security and global public policy at TechAmerica, a trade group. Funding for cybersecurity R&D and for training security professionals "requires immediate and sustained attention," she told the House of Representatives Research and Science Education Subcommittee Wednesday.
Experts: Gov't Needs to Spend More on Cyber R&D - Business Center - PC World
Iranians are blogging, posting to Facebook and, most visibly, coordinating their protests on Twitter, the messaging service. Their activity has increased, not decreased, since the presidential election on Friday and ensuing attempts by the government to restrict or censor their online communications.
Social Networks Spread Defiance Online - NYTimes.com
But that's what the administration is proposing to do. In particular, the inclusion of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency with the ability to regulate the sort of financial products that ordinary individuals come into contact with -- credit cards, mortgages, etc -- is a positive sign. An FDA for consumer finance, some are calling it.
Ezra Klein - Financial Reform for the Rest of Us
Two officials said the ruling would uphold a number of key U.S. arguments that China was violating international trade rules by forcing some American audiovisual goods to be distributed through Chinese state-owned companies.It will also find against Beijing for restrictive requirements on foreign makers of products from magazines to video games that do not extend to Chinese competitors, the officials said Tuesday.
INO.com News - Officials: US set to win in WTO dispute with China
The White House makes its case for this approach in an 85-page white paper that describes the roots of the crisis. Gaps in regulation allowed companies to make loans many borrowers could not afford. Funding came from new kinds of investments that were poorly understood by regulators. Big firms paid employees massive bonuses, while setting aside little money to absorb potential losses.
Obama Blueprint Deepens Federal Role in Markets - washingtonpost.com
ONI releases this report on the heals of the Chinese government's directive that Green Dam filtering software must be installed in all computers sold in the country. ONI issued an evaluation of the software last week, concluding that
OpenNet Initiative Releases Report on Filtering in Asia | Berkman Center
As they confront unprecedented numbers of troubled customers, credit card companies are increasingly doing something they have historically scorned: settling delinquent accounts for substantially less than the amount owed.
Credit Card Issuers Settle Accounts for Lower Balances - NYTimes.com
“When the president came in, we had a financial system that was very damaged,” Mr. Geithner said at a conference on the economy hosted by Time Warner. “If you look at where we are today, we really made substantial progress.”
Geithner Gives Update on the Financial Rescue - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com
Iran’s election has been a boon for the company. Global media outlets including the BBC and CNN are broadcasting tweets about the protests. Twitter has proved such a useful source of information about the upheaval that the United States government asked the company to postpone a scheduled maintenance so it could stay online, Breakingviews notes.
Twitter Gets Credibility Boost, but Can It Monetize? - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com
In doing so, the plan seeks to give Washington the tools to police the shadow system of finance that has grown up outside the government’s purview, and to make it easier for regulators to head off problems at large, troubled institutions or take control of them if they fail.
Obama Enlisted a Wide Consensus on Finance Rules - NYTimes.com
RazakSAT will be launched from Kwajalein Atoll, Republic of Marshall Islands witnessed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak of Malaysia from the Putrajaya International Convention Centre, he said.
Ongkili said the satelitte which will orbit above the Equator would not only provide benefits in meteorology and remote sensing but bring in income as other countries could use it for a fee.
The New Straits Times Online: RazakSAT to be launched on July14
During a panel discussion on net neutrality yesterday at the Toronto Congress Centre, Sandvine's chief executive officer, Dave Caputo, explained why an unmanaged Internet is not neutral. The net neutrality panel also included Mike Lee, chief strategy officer, Rogers Communications and Skype's Christopher Libertelli, senior director, government and regulator affairs of the Americas.
During the panel discussion Mr. Caputo described five truths that explain why reasonable network management is critical for today's evolved Internet: * Network congestion happens;
* Each application places different demands on the Internet;
* Subscribers' usage is not equal;
* Capacity increases alone do not solve network congestion; and
* Service providers need to protect the quality of experience for all subscribers and applications.
Sandvine CEO: "Unmanaged Is Not Neutral"
The Obama plan would give new powers to the Federal Reserve to oversee the entire financial system and would also create a new consumer protection agency to guard against credit and other abuses that played a big role in the current crisis.Unveiling his proposal before an East Room audience, Obama blamed the financial crisis on "a culture of irresponsibility" and outdated financial rules that were created in the wake of the Great Depression of the 1930s but had been "overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy."The Obama plan would give the Federal Reserve new powers to oversee the entire financial system, hoping that the central bank will be able deal with the kinds of problems that were allowed to build to such an extent that they ended up overwhelming the system last year, resulting in the collapse of some of America's largest financial institutions.
Obama spells out major financial rules overhaul - Yahoo! News
The draft document calls for removing restrictions on the Fed's ability to examine or impose restrictions on large financial holding companies and their subsidiaries. But Obama's proposal would require the Fed, which can independently use emergency powers to bail out failing banks, to first obtain Treasury approval before extending credit to institutions in "unusual and exigent circumstances."
Obama wants new financial agency for consumers - Yahoo! Finance
The technology allows users to filter and aggregate the data, as well as visualize it on Google Maps and other visualizations from the Google Visualization API. In addition, users can discuss the data with ‘collaborators’ - those they share it with - by using a chat feature. If a collaborator with edit permission changes data during the discussion, viewers will see the change as part of the discussion trail.
Google Fusion Tables Eases Data Management in the Cloud
While still at the early adoption stages, the impact of bringing Web video to the TV is expected to bring both opportunity and threats to a range of companies in the electronics and TV markets. By 2013, the revenue from Web-to-TV streaming services is forecast to grow to $2.9 billion.
Report: Game Consoles the Prime Device for Web TV :: Communications Technology
As might be expected, Google's presentation highlights the company's many good works and "don't be evil" corporate philosophy. But there's another element at front and center of the presentation: According to Warner and Kovacevich, their company holds only a 2.66 percent share of its total market.
Google Says It's Actually Quite Small - washingtonpost.com
IT innovation is more important than ever in a time of economic crisis. But how can CIOs continue to do more with less and at the same time be pioneers in the field of IT innovation?
James Champy: IT innovation in a time of economic crisis
What is this fury about? In his scant 145 days in office, the new president has not remotely matched the Bush record in deficit creation. Nor has he repealed the right to bear arms or exacerbated the wars he inherited. He has tried more than his predecessor ever did to reach across the aisle. But none of that seems to matter. A sizable minority of Americans is irrationally fearful of the fast-moving generational, cultural and racial turnover Obama embodies — indeed, of the 21st century itself. That minority is now getting angrier in inverse relationship to his popularity with the vast majority of the country. Change can be frightening and traumatic, especially if it’s not change you can believe in.
Op-Ed Columnist - The Obama Haters’ Silent Enablers - NYTimes.com
The Net neutrality position is, in a nutshell, that no matter who you get your Internet access through you should have access to the same Internet as everyone else.But the large corporations have started using their influence to sell features to the large ISPs at prices that smaller ISPs can't match. Besides the Net neutrality issues, this is troubling.
Cable group switches position: Net neutrality's OK | Digital Media - CNET News
One of the first things Sarkozy did after he moved into the Elysée Palace was to convene a meeting of prominent architects and ask them to come up with a new blueprint for Paris. “Of course,” he said, “projects should be realistic, but for me true realism is the kind that consists in being very ambitious.” His job was to clean up the city’s working-class suburbs, and at the same time build a greener Paris, the first city to conform to the environmental goals laid out in the Kyoto treaty.
The results, a year later, may be the beginning of one of the boldest urban planning operations in French history. A formidable list of architects — including Richard Rogers, Jean Nouvel, Djamel Klouche and Roland Castro — put forward proposals that address a range of urban problems: from housing the poor to fixing outdated transportation systems to renewing the immigrant suburbs. Some have suggested practical solutions — new train stations and parks — while others have been more provocative, like Castro, who proposed moving the presidential palace to the outskirts.
The Architecture Issue - Remaking Paris for the 21st Century - NYTimes.com
The service, described by the companies as a world first, will allow Virgin Media's broadband customers in Britain to stream and download as many songs and albums as they like from Universal's catalog for a fee.
Virgin Media and Universal launch music service - washingtonpost.com
As long as the global economy was crumbling, business held back and even welcomed the infusion of hundreds of billions of government dollars to prop up the system. Business leaders, like everyone else, were frightened to death. They welcomed Big Government's exertions to keep the banks alive and gin up consumer purchasing power.
To The Mattresses
But now that the debate over health care has moved from abstractions to legislative specifics, the story is starting to sound familiar. A prime example: recent statements by the National Manufacturers Association, which represents large industrial companies. Most reform proposals would require businesses to contribute toward the cost of their employees' health insurance, either by providing coverage or paying into a fund for the uninsured. An NAM official told a USA Today reporter the group wanted the employer mandate "out of there." Other business groups, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, seem equally skeptical.
Buyer Beware
"CDS are instruments of destruction which ought to be outlawed," Soros told a meeting of the Institute of International Finance, many of whose member banks and financial institutions are active participants in the huge CDS market.Going short on bonds by purchasing a CDS contract carried limited risk but almost unlimited profit potential. By contrast, selling CDSs offered limited profit and practically unlimited risk, Soros said.
UPDATE 1-Ban CDS as instruments of destruction - Soros | Markets | Markets News | Reuters
There is, however, one important thing that the D.H.S. report didn’t say: Today, as in the early years of the Clinton administration but to an even greater extent, right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment.
Op-Ed Columnist - The Big Hate - NYTimes.com
Under several proposals put forth this week, the IRS would more strictly enforce an existing law that classifies company-issued cellphones as a taxable benefit -- an idea decried by employers and wireless companies who argue that mobile phones are now essential tools in the workplace that shouldn't be considered income.The debate stems from a 1989 law that requires workers who use company cellphones for personal calls to count the value of those calls as income and pay federal income taxes for the minutes used. Employees are supposed to keep detailed records of their calls. Now that sending e-mails on mobile devices is more prevalent, data charges could also be subject to scrutiny.
Employees May Be Taxed for Texting If IRS Updates Work Cellphone Rules - washingtonpost.com
Three times in the past month, government agencies have targeted Google for antitrust reviews. An outstanding private lawsuit alleges that Google tried to kill a business-to-business search engine with predatory pricing. And during the waning months of the Bush administration, soon-to-be Obama antitrust chief Christine Varney declared that Google "has acquired a monopoly in Internet online advertising." Last month she asserted that the Bush administration had been too lax in combating monopolistic behavior and that the Obama Justice Department would no longer "stand on the sidelines."
Google Says It's Actually Quite Small - washingtonpost.com
President Obama has said that the new cyberdefense strategy he unveiled last month will provide protections for personal privacy and civil liberties. But senior Pentagon and military officials say that Mr. Obama’s assurances may be challenging to guarantee in practice, particularly in trying to monitor the thousands of daily attacks on security systems in the United States that have set off a race to develop better cyberweapons.Much of the new military command’s work is expected to be carried out by the National Security Agency, whose role in intercepting the domestic end of international calls and e-mail messages after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, under secret orders issued by the Bush administration, has already generated intense controversy.
Cyberwar - Privacy May Be a Victim in Cyberdefense Plan - Series - NYTimes.com
Spreadsheets (especially following the introduction of additional data capacity and processing efficiency in MS Excel 2007) are powerful analysis tools that, in many cases, are capable of delivering the same functionality as formally developed applications. Spreadsheets are often a viable and sensible alternative to IT-owned applications that are subject to lengthy software development cycles. As a result, they are a ubiquitous business tool.
Understanding spreadsheet risks - 11 Jun 2009
Here's an issue that will probably keep the telecom lawyers growling at each other for just a decade or so. The American Cable Association has asked the Federal Communications Commission to stop Internet video content providers from charging ISPs wholesale access fees to their sites "at discriminatory rates, terms and conditions." The ACA filed their request as feedback in the agency's proceeding on its National Broadband Plan. The trade group represents about 900 small and medium sized cable/ISP operators, many serving rural areas.
Cable group turns net neutrality around over ISP access fees - Ars Technica
Put on the defensive, state broadcaster CCTV announced on its noon news program Thursday that a "vast number of parents and experts" had endorsed the "Green Dam-Youth Escort" filtering software that must be packaged with all computers sold in China from July 1.
Honoluluadvertiser - China defends net filtering software amid outcry
Starting soon, customers who order through Mayer's online catalog will get punchout or roundtrip service -- that is, the ability to fill up a shopping cart, have the items translated automatically into a requisition order, then routed through their internal approval processes and -- once approved -- turned into purchase orders that pop up in Mayer Electric's ERP system. No double entry, crows Carden. Total data integrity. All of it handled in the cloud by an outside provider.
Midsized firm taps cloud-based B2B integration for punchout e-commerce
So Mr. Obama began a new effort on Monday to show that his stimulus plan was yielding concrete benefits, saying that his administration expects to save or create 600,000 more jobs this summer, as the federal government spends billions to expand care at health centers, spruce up national parks, hire teachers and improve military facilities.
White House Cites Progress on Economy Under Plan - NYTimes.com
The crisis has presented the European Union with its greatest challenge, but even many committed Europeanists believe that the alliance is failing the test. European leaders, their focus on domestic politics, disagree sharply about what to do to combat the slump. They have feuded over how much to stimulate the economy. They argue about whether the European Central Bank should worry more about the deep recession or future inflation. And they have rushed to protect jobs in their home markets at the expense of those in other member countries.
Continental Divide - Economy Shows Cracks in European Union - Series - NYTimes.com
The United States dropped its reliance on gold in 1971, but Jackson doubted the wisdom of this move. “Many a paper currency has spun out of orbit in a calamitous trajectory,” he once wrote. “There has never been an instance of gold or silver being discarded as worthless.”
It was time, Jackson mused, for a radical rethink of money. Had he been born in another era, he could scarcely have acted on his beliefs. But the nascent internet changed everything. The international, 24-hour churn of e-commerce cried out for a monetary system that transcended borders and time zones. So in early 1996, Jackson began programming a back-end system for a new electronic currency, practicing medicine by day, and coding by night.
He hired a software engineer to create the user interface, and four months later launched E-Gold.
As Jackson envisioned it, E-Gold was a private, international currency that would circulate independent of government controls, and stand impervious to the market’s highs and lows. Brimming with evangelical enthusiasm, Jackson proclaimed it a cure for the modern monetary system’s ills and described it at one point as “an epochal change in human destiny” and “probably the greatest benefit to humanity that’s ever been thought of.”
Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold | Threat Level | Wired.com
It’s a simple question and it can be read two ways. One way is to ask just what constitutes the Internet, or makes something a part of the Internet. The other way is to ask whether and why it matters. Those are important policy questions in today’s world, where “Internet” is still a magic word, beloved of many policy makers but still widely feared.
What Does it Mean to be Internet?
“The filing of the plan and disclosure statement is an important achievement in our restructuring efforts,” said Eric K. Yeaman, Hawaiian Telcom’s president and CEO, in a statement. “The plan provides for a significantly deleveraged capital structure, and the terms of the new debt give us greater financial flexibility to execute our business plan and invest in new products, better positioning the company for future success.”
Hawaiian Telcom files reorganization plan - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):
You have the US and the UK, with their insolvent banking systems, hoping that world leaders will adopt a massive, global spending scheme to jolt GDP back.
On the other side you have Continental Europe, which is showing surprising restraint, arguing (quite logically) that more borrowing isn't the answer to a debt crisis.
And then you have China and Russia, with totally different interests talkinga bout new global currencies to replace the dollar.And Russia, for one, wants the world to get back to gold.
Russia To Push For Gold Standard
That’s not to completely dismiss the headline figure, it says. Under terms announced Tuesday, the Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies is plugging $200 million into the company for about a 2 percent stake. By that arithmetic, Facebook would indeed be worth $10 billion.For a company that, by its own admission, won’t generate positive cash flow until sometime next year, that’s an impressive figure to bandy about. True, Facebook’s last capital-raising 18 months ago, which brought Microsoft and the Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing in as investors, put a $15 billion price tag on the company. But considering the trajectory of financial markets since then, the valuation attached to Digital Sky’s trade actually looks even more robust, Breakingviews says.
What Is Facebook Actually Worth? - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com
Here's what's going on: Broadcasters are permanently turning off the analog signals they've been using for more than six decades and moving to all-digital programming. Why? Digital signals travel more efficiently, allowing broadcasters to air more channels with a higher-quality picture. The old analog airwaves will be repurposed for wireless communications networks for public safety officials. And companies such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless have bought the rights to use those airwaves to roll out new cellphone services for consumers.
Your Antenna's Big Day - washingtonpost.com
Futurist Douglas Rushkoff, famous for correctly predicting the rise of social media, is trying to convince Craigslist's Craig Newmark to create "craigbucks." He thinks it's the obvious next step in the evolution of money. "People could buy and sell things exclusively on Craigslist using craigbucks," Rushkoff enthuses. "Sure they'll want to keep their Visas and their MasterCards, but they'll want a specialized, alternative form of cash too."
Dual Perspectives Article
The quandary is this: Most of the uses Twitter has been adapted to were already well-served by existing online tools — blogs, email, instant-messaging — and it's not entirely obvious how the subcompact message lengths and other constraints of microblogging represent an improvement. Identifying Twitter's comparative advantage, in other words — the compelling, real-world need that it alone among social media best fulfills — is hard. So hard that a recent blog post by legendary web-tech guru (and avid twitterer) Dave Winer all but conceded Twitter's core appeal might remain forever shrouded in the ineffable. "There's something there," wrote Winer. "The challenge is to figure out what it is."
Dual Perspectives Article
On the front line of the e-commerce tax are online travel companies, or OTCs, such as Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) More about Expedia, Hotels.com, Priceline (Nasdaq: PCLN) More about Priceline.ComTravelocity More about Travelocity and Orbitz (NYSE: OWW) More about Orbitz. The issue is whether the OTCs should be collecting hotel room occupancy taxes on the difference in the price between what the OTC pays the hotel operator and the amount that customer pays to the OTC. For example, assume that an OTC in a jurisdiction with a 10 percent hotel room tax pays a hotel US$100 for a room night and then charges its customer $150. The OTC pays $10 in room taxes -- but must the OTC collect a 10 percent room tax on the $50 markup? Increasingly, local tax authorities are saying that the additional tax must be paid.
The stakes are huge. On May 1, the San Francisco Tax Collector determined that Expedia owed $32 million in hotel room taxes, penalties and interest to the city. Expedia has filed a lawsuit to appeal this ruling, but this is just what a single city says it is owed by a single OTC in back taxes -- albeit a city that is one of the top tourist destinations in the United States.
E-Commerce News: Law: The Front Line of the E-Commerce Tax Battle, Part 1
The plug-in will be based on the 2010 Prius, which rolled into Japanese showrooms last month. Toyota has already booked more than 80,000 orders for the car in Japan. It was the best-selling car in Japan last month; the Honda Insight topped the list in April. We’ve driven both cars; see our review of the Prius here and the Insight here.Plug-ins are touted for triple-digit fuel economy, but a test fleet of 17 plug-in Prius hybrids in the Seattle area has achieved an average of just 51 mpg. Officials there and plug-in advocates said the problem lies with driver behavior, not the technology.
Plug-In Prius Coming This Year | Autopia | Wired.com
THR/TOM BUSHEY Goshen's Jeffrey Pennings wins the 1,600-meter run during the Section 9 state qualifier at Middletown's Faller Field on Friday, June 5, 2009.
recordonline.com - Times Herald-Record - Emailed Photo
In an age when money is tight, open source, advertiser-supported or other types of free software can be a lifesaver. Many are surprisingly sophisticated and feature-rich, and (especially the open-source ones) have active user forums where you can ask questions and troubleshoot problems.
Shelbyville Times-Gazette: Story : Column by John I. Carney
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides more thant $100 billion in new funding for the restoration and improvement of the American education system. This offers unprecedented opportunities for schools and campuses to make investments in students, teachers, programs, training and infrastructure, to prepare students to advance their education or enter the workforce. ARRA funding supports skill creation and program development in early learning, and for secondary schools and colleges, that help students gain skills and get jobs. Improving student achievement and positive reforms in schools are among ARRA’s guiding principals.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
"We've been an advocate of federal privacy legislation for a number of years, and we would actually like to see a real comprehensive approach to privacy legislation that creates some baseline standards across industries and across the country," Hintze said.
But tech companies whose revenue streams in advertising and other areas are increasingly tied to the quality of their data-collection operations, and would be wary of privacy legislation with specific restrictive conditions for online information.
Web Firms, Advocates Draw Lines in Privacy Fight - InternetNews.com
Today's event closely follows the release of a report on modernizing federal privacy policies from the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB), a panel within the Commerce Department comprised of government officials and representatives of the nonprofit, academic and private sectors that advises senior administration and agency personnel on security and privacy issues.
The groups' recommendations are similar. Both call on Congress to modernize the definition of personal information to account for the ways data is collected, stored and used in the digital age, and for agencies across the federal government to elevate citizen privacy to a higher priority.
Momentum Builds for Updating Privacy Act - InternetNews.com
The company's analysis for Thursday finds that in the U.S. Bing overtook Yahoo to take second place on 16.28%, with Yahoo Search currently at 10.22%. For the sake of comparison: Google's U.S. market share is pegged at 71.47%, and its worldwide share at a whopping 87.62% (vs. 5.62% for Bing and 5.13% for Yahoo).
Did Bing Just Leapfrog Yahoo Search? - washingtonpost.com
Bing suffers from some handicaps, starting with one whose initials happen to spell out: "But It's Not Google." Yet it works fairly well as a general-purpose search engine, outperforms competitors in a couple of areas and makes a major contribution to mobile Web searching. There's something to see here, and it's not just the hype that $100 million or so of marketing can buy.
Rob Pegoraro - With Bing, Microsoft Finds Some Good Web Search Ideas - washingtonpost.com
"From now on our digital infrastructure, the networks and computers we depend on everyday, will be treated as they should be—as a strategic national asset," Obama said during a press conference last week. "Protecting this infrastructure will be a national security priority. We will ensure that these networks are secure, trustworthy and resilient."
Cyber-Security Should Not Limit Enterprise Privacy
Ross described the new vision for diplomacy as a radical departure from the traditional gathering of a small cadre of diplomats around a mahogany table, sipping scotch and negotiating treaties in the dead of night. It's a slow ship to turn, to be sure, but he said the ultimate goal is to forge a path with collaborative technologies that can remake diplomacy around a more populist model.
Obama's Government 2.0 Plans Moving Ahead - InternetNews.com
"Tech policy is at the heart of this administration's plans for the future," she declared.
Crawford held forth on a host of areas the administration has identified as priorities, including balancing security with privacy -- one of the prevailing themes of this week's conference -- as well as Net neutrality and universal access to high-speed networks.
Obama Team Stumps for Tech Policy - InternetNews.com
ICANN, the Internet naming authority, is up against the wall. It may simply drop its greatest revolutionary idea of offering a brand new type of designer domain name to accommodate the cyberrealities of the widely expanded Internet of tomorrow.This new proposed platform would surely revolutionize marketing Click here to get the Free Email Design No-No's Guide from Lyris -- includes the top 10 things you need to know. and branding for big and small businesses around the world, offering more highly affordable tools for global reach than ever before -- but there are strong opponents who would like to kill this idea. Following are five reasons ICANN may abandon its plan.1) Fear of rejection. For some strange rea
E-Commerce News: E-Marketing: Will ICANN Drop Its Most Revolutionary Idea?
Increased rates could translate into hundreds of billions of dollars more in government spending for countries like the United States, Britain and Germany.
Even a single percentage point increase could cost the Treasury an additional $50 billion annually over a few years — and, eventually, an additional $170 billion annually.
Rising Interest on Nations’ Debts May Sap World Growth - NYTimes.com
Gary G. Gensler, the top regulator for futures trading, will provide significant new details of a plan announced three weeks ago by the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner. Mr. Gensler will disclose his proposal before the Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees the commission.
Lawmakers said they had been told that Mr. Gensler would propose two sets of regulations — one set for the individual dealers of derivatives and a second set for the marketplaces where the instruments are traded.
Regulator to Detail Plan to Oversee Derivatives - NYTimes.com
The Internet Mapping Project was started at Bell Labs in the summer of 1998. Its goal is to acquire and save Internet topological data over a long period of time. This data has been used in the study of routing problems and changes, DDoS attacks, and graph theory.
Internet Mapping Project
When all this is over, the economic crisis will take lasting form in the American consciousness as a video montage. The images are already familiar: traders gaping in horror at the Stock Exchange ... Paulson testifying before Congress ... A foreclosure notice tacked onto a front-porch door ... Obama selling the bailout ... The Chrysler headquarters posted for sale on Craigslist (well, not really, not yet). It is as easy to envision this string of images as it is to conjure a mental highlight reel of the visual iconography of the Great Depression: the Dust Bowl photography of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, newsreel clips of bread lines and Hooverville shacks--and all of it set to the sound of Rudy Vallee singing "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" What, then, will play on the soundtrack of the montage of the current crisis? What is the music of our meltdown?
Music In The Meltdown
While previous iterations of the PSP have played games stored on small optical discs, the PSP Go is meant to download games and store them in its internal memory. The bottom of the console slides out from the main body to reveal game-control buttons.
Sony Unveils a New PSP Portable Console - NYTimes.com
Obama shares the Internet giant's interest in expanding high-speed Internet access so people can use Web services more often. Obama also shares Google's interest in network neutrality: banning telecommunication companies from charging Web sites for faster delivery of their content, the Times reported.While Google is in a strong position to advance its agenda, so is rival Microsoft, another top Obama contributor and an old hand at besting its competition, said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a digital rights group.
Google pursues power in Washington - UPI.com
Google's head of global public policy, Andrew McLaughlin, is quitting the company to join the Obama administration, reports the Times. He's the third Googler to do so.Before him, Google (GOOG) project manager Katie Stanton quit to become director of citizen participation. Sonal Sha, from Google's for-profit charitable arm, Google.org, quit to lead the White House Office of Social Innovation.
Googlers Keep Quitting To Join Obama (GOOG)
The people Larry Page and Sergey Brin tasked with figuring out how Google should make money in 1998 were a pair of know-nothings in their early 20s. Salar Kamanger, Google's ninth employee, had been a biology major at Stanford. His partner, Eric Veach studied computer science. Together they implemented Google's now $21 billion business, AdWords. Neat.
10 Things You Didn't Know About Google's Search Business (GOOG)
The issue pits access providers such as Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and other telecommunications companies against consumer groups and content providers such as Google who oppose efforts to restrict what Internet subscribers can access, based either on how much they're willing to pay or by the nature of the content or activity, the Washington publication Politico reported Tuesday.
Internet providers change FCC strategy - UPI.com
The justices said they will review a lower court decision that narrowed the class of patentable inventions, excluding some innovations that don't have a physical component. Because it came from the federal appeals court that handles all patent appeals, the ruling had marked a watershed in U.S. intellectual property law.
The issue is dividing companies. Microsoft, IBM and a financial-services industry trade group supported limits on business-method patents at the appeals court, while others, including consulting company Accenture and appliance maker Royal Philips Electronics, say the court's requirements on inventors are too strict.
Supreme Court to Hear Business-Method Patent Case - washingtonpost.com
"We believe our inclusion in the Dow demonstrates not only Cisco's role as a broad technology indicator, but how remarkably the Internet and networking have transformed the way businesses and consumers connect, communicate and collaborate," Cisco said in a statement.
Intel and Microsoft were the first Dow components that are listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market rather than the New York Stock Exchange. Cisco will be the third.
The Dow Jones industrial average also includes the two largest telecommunications services providers in the U.S., AT&T (NYSE: T) More about AT&T and Verizon Communications More about Verizon, which both are major Cisco customers.
E-Commerce News: Wall Street: Cisco Makes Itself at Home on the Dow
For April the company recorded a net loss of $6.1 million, down from $15 million in March, due mostly to the court's approval of an extension of its contract with consulting firm Accenture under new terms. In February, Hawaiian Telcom posted an $8.3 million loss.
Operating revenue remained relatively flat between March and April, ending at $34.5 million in April. Hawaiian Telcom continues to owe $2.4 million in interest income from loans that are still outstanding.
HawTel narrows its loss - Hawaii Business - Starbulletin.com
What's more, they won't have to use the buttons and thumbsticks that line a traditional game controller. A new motion-detecting and voice-recognizing camera that can "see" a player's arm and hand motions will allow Xbox owners to interact with the device with a wave of their hand or a spoken command.
The announcement was aided by several celebrities including Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, who showed up to talk up the latest version of the popular game Rock Band, coming this fall, which will feature 45 Beatles songs. "Whoever thought we'd end up as androids?" joked McCartney, as he and Starr promoted the game's graphics.
Microsoft Is Kicking Xbox Up a Notch - washingtonpost.com
Other enthusiasts, including some who had served in the US military in Korea, quickly began adding data, cross-checking facts and labelling locations.
The result is a portrait of a hidden country. It is so rich in raw intelligence that even the collators may not be aware of just how many state secrets are on their website.
Amateurs use Google Earth to uncover Kim’s sinister secrets - Times Online
In addition, Bing incorporates a few dynamic elements into search, such as thumbnail video in the "News" and results pages that play whenever the user’s cursor drifts over them, in a manner reminiscent of Yahoo’s own search additions.
But during the D: All Things Digital conference in California last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer also attempted to downplay search’s importance to his company’s overall strategy, saying that he spent "more of my time on talent
Microsoft Bing Search Engine Launches Early
The decision from the Court of Appeals in Washington upholds a Federal Communications Commission ruling that banned the exclusive agreements as anticompetitive.
The deals involved a provider exchanging a valuable service like wiring a multiunit building for cable in exchange for the exclusive right to provide service to all the residents.
The Associated Press: Court says no exclusive cable rights in apartments
Xbox owners will soon be able to listen to Web-streamed music, update their Facebook or Twitter pages and watch movies in high definition instantly on the device, without having to wait on a sluggish download.
What's more, they won't have to use the buttons and thumbsticks that line a traditional game controller. A new motion-detecting and voice-recognizing camera that can "see" a player's arm and hand motions will allow Xbox owners to interact with the device with a wave of their hand or a spoken command.
Microsoft Is Kicking Xbox Up a Notch - washingtonpost.com
Today, General Motors (GM) filed for bankruptcy. As a result, starting on June 8, it will no longer be included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), the market index calculated from the stock prices of 30 of the largest, most widely held companies in the United States. GM's removal will mark the end of an impressive 83-year stretch in the DJIA. And it won't be exiting alone: Citigroup will also be kicked out of the index the same day. Replacing the two once-behemoths will be The Travelers Companies, Inc. and Cisco Systems, Inc.
With GM Out, Who Gets a Spot in the Dow... and How? - The Plank
GM has made the Volt the centerpiece of its push to build smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles and it has spent nearly $1 billion developing the car. When we drove the Volt engineering mule in April, Laukner called the car “one of, if not the most important projects within the company.” General Motors reiterated that point today when spokesman Dave Darowitz said, “it’s still the No. 1 project at GM.”
Chevrolet Volt Charges On Despite Bankruptcy | Autopia | Wired.com
Among the other naming changes that go along with the new search, Live Search Cashback is now Bing Cashback, while technology from Microsoft's Farecast acquisition now powers Bing Travel. Virtual Earth gets a name change (though not an upgrade in my book) and is now Bing Maps for Enterprise.
With Bing, Microsoft is trying to make the case that search today is still an often unsatisfying experience. That is a unique challenge for Microsoft. Although its research shows that most people repeat searches and give up without finding exactly what they are looking for, perceived satisfaction of search is actually pretty high.
Bing balloons into public view | Beyond Binary - CNET News
Many missteps have already been made. Despite investing heavily in search engine technology over the years, Microsoft has watched Google steadily erode at its market share. This time it is taking a more precise approach, working to help searchers with specific online tasks.
Bruised by Google, Microsoft Tries to Revitalize Search - NYTimes.com
Obama announced a plan to create a cybersecurity coordinator post (don't call it a "czar") in his administration. It is not clear yet who will fill that position, though the job so far looks similar to the administration CTO and CIO posts that he created, in that it is not particularly clear how far-reaching any of these positions will be, how influential they will be in working with other government agencies or what sort of interface they will have with private enterprise.
Obama launches cyberspace policy adventures - FierceTelecom
