Ignoring all rationality and responding only to the lobbying of the RIAA, an arbitration committee in Washington DC has drastically increased the licensing fees Internet radio sites must pay to stream songs. Pandora’s fees will triple, and are retroactive for eighteen months! Left unchanged by Congress, every day will be like today as internet radio sites start shutting down and the music dies.
internet
Today Is The Day Of Internet Radio Silence
By 6.26.07
Find Jeans That Actually Fit Using The Power Of The Internet
By 6.26.07
Shopping site Zafu.com has a fun jean fit finder that you can use to (supposedly) find jeans that flatter your particular curves. We tried it and it spat out 5 pairs of jeans that we either could not afford or hated, but we did feel that the idea was sound. It told us why we should buy ugly Jessica Simpsony jeans and why they would fit us better than jeans we actually liked.
How Far Can You Drive With The Tank On Empty?
By 6.22.07
Justin Davis is on a mission. He wants to know how far various cars will drive after the gas-tank warning light comes on. The auto manufacturers won’t tell him. His solution? Ask the internet.
Family Stalked Using Cellphone Snoopware
By 6.22.07
Holy crap, this is scary! A family interviewed on the Today show is being stalked by “hackers” who have taken over their cell phones. The stalkers use the cell phones to record conversations and the play them back to scare the family. They also leave messages saying they are going to rape one of the family members.
File A Complaint With The FCC
By 6.22.07
If you have a complaint about anything that happens over a wire or is otherwise communicated, you can file one with the FCC. Telephone, cable, debt collectors, and more all fall under their jurisdiction.
US Airways Promises To Fix Its Awful, Broken Website
By 6.18.07
Call us skeptics, but when US Airways promises to fix its awful, broken website, we choose to wait and see if it happens. That’s because we’re mean.
AT&T's New Copyright Protection Plan: Read Everyone's Data!
By 6.16.07
AT&T has announced a plan to keep pirated content off their network by peeking at everyone’s data to see if it contains copyrighted material. The plan, which the telecom somehow claims will “not violate user privacy,” will only target repeat offenders.
FBI: 1 Million US Computers Have Been Taken Over By Botnets
By 6.14.07
The FBI has tells us that they’ve found 1 million US computers that have been compromised and are being controlled and used for evil.
Safari for Windows Has Glitch That Could Let Attackers Take Complete Control Of The PC
By 6.13.07
According to an article in PC World, only hours after Apple debuted its Safari browser for Windows, 8 bugs were found, one of which is so severe that it could let an attacker “grab complete control of the PC.”
CarFax Patents Searching For Cars With Clean Titles
By 6.12.07
Abstract: A system and method for allowing a consumer to search a database containing used vehicles from a variety of sellers that can be queried to provide search results that include only vehicles having clean title histories.
We’re surprised that Verizon doesn’t already hold this patent. They patented the internet back in 1996. —MEGHANN MARCO
NYC Jeweler Caught Fake Bidding On Its Own Items
By 6.11.07
Once upon a time we worked at an office where a certain loud individual would sit around bidding on her own stuff on eBay in a sad attempt to drive prices up on her collection of bedazzled jeans. We know this because she not only bid on her own stuff, she asked other people in the office to “fake bid” on her tacky crap.
Apple Store Blocks MySpace
By 5.29.07
It’s a sad day for cheap vain people, the Apple Store has blocked MySpace. One can no longer hog the computers taking pursed-lipped self-portraits with PhotoBooth and uploading them to MySpace. Apparently, such people were clogging up the Macs for hours at a time.
Suburban Early Adopters Locked Into 75 Year Contract With ISP
By 5.22.07
Erika Hodell-Cotti, who lives on Sunstone Court, says she cannot work from home because her Internet connection frequently fizzles out. The teenagers who live next door play online Xbox games at friends’ houses where speeds are faster. Dozens of neighbors have installed satellite dishes on their roofs and backyard decks, fed up with cable channels that sometimes dissolve into snowy static.
Whoops! Residents pay their ISP “OpenBand” a not-insignificant $149 a month for these services as part of their homeowner’s association fees. Ah, the perils of early adoption. —MEGHANN MARCO
Marriott's ISP Blames Scam Site Redirect On World's First Bisexual Rootkit
By 5.18.07
There’s been a comment war boiling as Marriott, Will, and the hotel’s internet access company (GTS) duke it out to discern the vulnerability redirecting Marirott internet using guests to a casino scam site.
Beware The WiFi Snoopers, They're Watching You
By 5.17.07
For more info on how you can protect yourself when using public WiFi, check out this article from Computerworld. —MEGHANN MARCO
