09
Jul
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After lots of scouring and compiling, I’ve developed the world’s most complete ping list for your WordPress blog. By default, WordPress pings only Pingomatic each time you post something new, but my list saturates the continental United States and also includes some friendly overseas services.
To add my list for WordPress 2.5x, go to Settings, then Writing, and scroll down to where it says "Update Services." Highlight what’s there and then copy my list from the next page and paste it in. Hit "Save Changes," and your posts will soon be populating the universe.
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05
Jul
Google and Yahoo have both caved io China and turned over user information, leading to individuals’ being fingered and incarcerated, so if you think your Internet privacy is in good hands, think again.
Case in point: This week, a judge in New York ruled that Viacom can have access to YouTube user data, including IP addresses. IP addresses are like the name of your computer, and it’s a relatively simple matter to convert the IP to computer ownership (though the judge ordered Viacom not to do this). YouTube, of course, is owned by Google.
Google may appeal but said it will not if Viacom and YouTube can work out a system whereby each user is given a code that is recorded in lieu of the IP address.
Viacom wants the data to prove that YouTube has greatly profited from pirated Viacom videos and video segments uploaded to YouTube and thus is owed beaucoup bucks in compensation.
Meanwhile, the whole issue shows how vulnerable you and I are with our Web activities. (If you use search engines, use IxQuck, which does not record user data.)
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02
Jul
I was participating in a faculty meeting recently, conducted online for those of us who teach for a certain university, and the facilitator mentioned how he used Second Life–a so-called (I guess) virtual reality site where you can set up shop, earn money, buy property, and so on–to augment his instructional techniques.
One of the other faculty participants opined how the whole idea of Second Life sounded "creepy." I chirped in, "I’ve always found Second Life to be very creepy."
Folks, isn’t the point of living to succeed in the real world rather than playing games in cyberspace? Now, granted, maybe some of this surreal game-playing can lead to real connections and money-making opportunities on ground rather than in cyberspace, but still….
Dammit, it’s just creepy. The Internet is just a tool, not a substitute for reality.
I bring this up because the Los Angeles Times today ran an article about how pre-adult Internet users are flocking to Second Life-type sites for people their age–and getting burned in the process. Turns out, there are just as many bullies, phonies, scammers, frauds and vicious people online (maybe more since they can hide) as there are in real life.
Read it–and get a lilfe.
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27
Jun
Meeting in Paris yesterday, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted, pending public review and commentary, to allow governments, organizations and even individuals to register their own domain extensions. In other words, I conceivably could create www.webnews.mccarty, using my last name as the "dot" part.
Unlikely that I would do that, however, since I’m sure they’ll want a prince’s ransom for registering these things. Already, ICANN has indicated that companies, say Disney, can out right buy their trademarked extensions, but for generic extensions such as dot-bank, dot-auto or dot-sex, for instance, an auction would be set up. Har de har har–big bucks here!
ICANN also agreed that new domains can be established using non-Roman characters. I’m sure al Qaeda, among others, might jump on this one. Just my opinion.
Anyway, how does one get a job with ICANN? Having meetings in Paris, all expenses paid, sounds wonderful to me.
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19
Jun
They still can legally read your e-mails from work if they (the companies themselves) own their own e-mail servers, but if they contract out to an outside provider, employers can no longer ask for the content of employees’ e-mails.
So ruled the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (which also once banned the Pledge of Alegiance), granting Fourth Amendment rights to employees in certain situations.
Fourth Amendment search-and-seizure rights over e-mail–and text messages–now are being granted to all government workers and to all other employees whose employers contract out either or both the e-mail and cell phone services (very few companies outside of those like Verizon would own their own cellular service).
However, some 65 percent of all company e-mail servers are owned by the companies themselves.
So, if you go in for a job interview, and at the end they ask if you have any questions, you can say, "Do you own your own e-mail servers?"
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