Salon.com > The Internet http://www.salon.com Sun, 26 May 2013 01:38:09 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 The Internet blew my mind http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/after_25_years_in_jail_the_internet_blew_my_mind_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/after_25_years_in_jail_the_internet_blew_my_mind_partner/#comments Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:08:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13228953 The Daily Dot The Internet did not exist when I began serving my prison sentence in 1987. I didn’t have direct access to the Internet as it dawned on popular culture and became mainstream for many Americans, throught the “You’ve got mail!” craze of the '90s. Years would pass, until my release from prison in 2012 before I’d be able to experience the Internet firsthand.

While I served my prison sentence, I frequently dreamed of using the Internet. From reading numerous technology magazines and financial newspapers, I perceived the Web as a powerful tool. From my perspective, it would become more influential to the advancement of society than television, radio, and the telephone combined. The interactivity and ability to engage people on an infinite scale quickly convinced me that this technology would transform the world and I wanted to be a part of that evolution. I read extensively about how citizens from everywhere were using the Internet to advance society, spreading knowledge and wisdom. I looked forward to becoming a part of the Internet generation.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/after_25_years_in_jail_the_internet_blew_my_mind_partner/feed/ 28 Watch the Miami Heat do the Harlem shake http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/watch_the_miami_heat_do_the_harlem_shake/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/watch_the_miami_heat_do_the_harlem_shake/#comments Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:44:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13215920 Well, the Harlem shake was fun while it lasted, sort of. On Thursday night, the Miami Heat released their own version of the dance video, as sure a sign as any that the viral sensation is finally over. Still, basketball fans can revel in the sight of human inkblot Chris "Birdman" Andersen flapping his wings like a drugged-out condor and LeBron James channeling his inner Busta Rhymes. And look! There's Mario Chalmers as Super Mario and (we're guessing) Dwyane Wade as Kanye West circa 2004. It's like the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band sprung to life, but with ghetto blasters and sombreros.

This isn't the first time the Heat have made news off the court. In March of 2012, the team donned hoodies in support of Trayvon Martin, a political statement as surprising as it was brave. Their latest video shows they know how to let loose together too.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/watch_the_miami_heat_do_the_harlem_shake/feed/ 1 Ill Doctrine: “Little haters” stifle our creativity http://www.salon.com/2013/02/14/ill_doctrine_little_haters_stifle_our_creativity_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/14/ill_doctrine_little_haters_stifle_our_creativity_partner/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:08:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13201102

Haters don't die, they multiply (return of the little hater) on Vimeo.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/14/ill_doctrine_little_haters_stifle_our_creativity_partner/feed/ 3 The Pirate Bay becomes raid-proof http://www.salon.com/2012/10/17/pirate_bay_becomes_raid_proof/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/17/pirate_bay_becomes_raid_proof/#comments Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:47:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13043555 Popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay bills itself as "the world's most resilient" site of its kind. As a top facilitator of illegal downloading around the planet, The Pirate Bay has, since its inception in 2003, taken pains to conceal the location of its servers from the authorities.

Now, according to TorrentFreak.com, TPB has headed for "the cloud" -- all its servers will now be virtually hosted, without the need for any persisting physical server locations.

“Moving to the cloud lets [The Pirate Bay] move from country to country, crossing borders seamlessly without downtime. All the servers don’t even have to be hosted with the same provider, or even on the same continent,” The Pirate Bay told TorrentFreak. "If the police decide to raid us again there are no servers to take," the site said, explaining that hosting content virtually leaves little to be taken in a raid.

The Pirate Bay was raided once before in 2006 in Sweden (where the site originates from). Police took all the site's servers at the time, but it was still back online and more popular than ever within three days. According to Torrent Freak, the site's move to the cloud may have been prompted by rumors that another police raid was imminent in Sweden. The powerful Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have long pressured authorities to crackdown on the site, which, since moving to the cloud, boasts the epithet "the galaxy's most resilient bit torrent site."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/17/pirate_bay_becomes_raid_proof/feed/ 9 Europe calls out Google over privacy http://www.salon.com/2012/10/16/europe_calls_out_google_over_privacy/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/16/europe_calls_out_google_over_privacy/#comments Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:50:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13041998 European regulators announced Tuesday that Google's collection and use of user data violates Europe's privacy standards.  In a letter to the Internet leviathan, regulators from 27 EU countries told Google that legal action and fines could follow unless it was more transparent with users about what personal data is collected and how it is used. According to the New York Times:

The regulators couched their requests as “practical recommendations.” But when asked what regulators would do if Google did not accede and make changes, Jacob Kohnstamm, head of the Dutch data protection authority, said national regulators probably would take legal action to compel changes. “After all, enforcement is the name of the game,” Mr. Kohnstamm said.

European concerns flared earlier this year when Google introduced a new policy that collects user information across sites including Gmail, Google + and YouTube. The overhaul, which users cannot opt out of, enabled advertisers to better target users but riled privacy advocates and regulators.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/16/europe_calls_out_google_over_privacy/feed/ 0 Facebook passes 1 billion active users http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/facebook_passes_1_billion_active_users/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/facebook_passes_1_billion_active_users/#comments Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:47:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13030096 "This morning, there are more than 1 billion people using Facebook actively each month," Mark Zuckerberg announced this morning on the official Facebook blog.

The social media leviathan has seen major growth in recent months in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the U.S., pushing it passed the one billion active monthly user mark. Zuckerberg, not content to stop at a billion is actively seeking to spread the site further. This week he visited Russia to boost Facebook in one of the rare countries where it is not the most popular social networking site.

"I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too," wrote Zuckerberg on Thursday.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/facebook_passes_1_billion_active_users/feed/ 0 Zuckerberg goes to Moscow http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/zuckerberg_goes_to_moscow/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/zuckerberg_goes_to_moscow/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:42:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13027061 Mark Zuckerberg met with representatives from the Russian government Monday in Moscow to help boost  Facebook's presence in Russia.

According to Agence France-Presse, meetings were scheduled between Zuckerberg and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev -- the government's self-appointed supporter of technological advancement (who is seen "regularly brandishing an iPad," as AFP noted).

The aim of the visit is reportedly to foster cooperation and boost Facebook in Russia, one of the few countries in the world where it is not the No. 1 social network; Russian language site Vtonkte is currently more popular.

However, AFP notes:

Zuckerberg’s visit is not entirely free of controversy, with Russian firms saying his main aim is to headhunt Russian tech talent and lure recruits back to California.

…Representatives of Vkontakte and Russia’s largest Internet company Mail.ru confirmed to [… a Russian business daily] that Facebook had made attempts to tempt their employees out of Russia.

According to reports, Zuckerburg -- hooded sweatshirt-clad, as ever -- ate at a Moscow branch of McDonald's following his meetings.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/zuckerberg_goes_to_moscow/feed/ 1 Surviving the networked home http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/surviving_the_networked_home/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/surviving_the_networked_home/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:44:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13024984 Since reluctantly graduating from childhood into the real world, I'm often reminded of the value of my home economics classes. The skills I developed in ironing, sewing and cooking - albeit, fairly minimal in scope - have come in handy for various chores across the Sirota homestead. However, I've also recognized a gaping hole in my home ec repertoire. Educated in the era before the Internet became a household appliance, I've spent a sizable chunk of adulthood educationally unarmed in the battle to become an adequate home network administrator - or, as we call it, a Dadmin.

As those of us amateur IT experts who have been slogging through crawlspaces and tweaking network preferences well know, this is a dirty, tedious and complex job - but alas, in every Internet-embracing house, someone has to do it. Indeed, if someone doesn't do it, you not only lose out on some of the key benefits of the information age, but your family's increasingly computer-dependent life can quickly become a nightmare of indecipherable error messages and blue screens of death. Even in your home is ensconced in the seemingly safe and simplified Apple bubble, without a network expert, the bubble will inevitably be popped by ever-spinning rainbow pinwheels.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/surviving_the_networked_home/feed/ 6 Twitter histories of events are vanishing http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/history_as_recorded_on_twitter_is_vanishing/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/history_as_recorded_on_twitter_is_vanishing/#comments Thu, 20 Sep 2012 22:22:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13017390 Nowadays, we’re very good at telling history in real time. Live-tweeting, livestreaming, Instagraming, link sharing, instant commenting -- everyday lives and major events are recorded and narrated from every angle as they happen. A new study has found, however, that these minutes-old histories may not be built to last.

Two researchers at the Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., working on the mammoth task of curating the social media content that surrounded (and helped shape) the Arab Spring, were struck by their findings -- or the gaps therein. Much of the shared online content has already disappeared.

As the Technology Review reported:

A significant proportion of the websites that this social media [around the Arab Spring] points to has disappeared. And the same pattern occurs for other culturally significant events, such as the the H1N1 virus outbreak, Michael Jackson's death and the Syrian uprising. In other words, our history, as recorded by social media, is slowly leaking away.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/history_as_recorded_on_twitter_is_vanishing/feed/ 10 DMX freaks out over using Google http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/dmx_freaks_out_over_using_google/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/dmx_freaks_out_over_using_google/#comments Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:46:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13016739 DMX is a brave, brave man. He has endured prison, endless legal battles, and the tumult of a rap career -- but these pale in comparison to what the rapper confronted yesterday: The Google. He told Power 105.1, "I don't even know how to use a computer. I don't want to know how to use a computer." Of the Google toolbar, he said, "That's scary. That's scary."

Eventually, an interviewer coached him through it, and it was sort of OK:

"I know you can do this, just type 'D-M-X.'"

(DMX struggles to find keys)

"Oh, all right, so what do I do?"

"Now you hit 'Enter'!"

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/dmx_freaks_out_over_using_google/feed/ 7 Big story you missed http://www.salon.com/2012/09/10/big_story_you_missed_5/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/10/big_story_you_missed_5/#comments Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:10:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13007348 TechCrunch reports that AnonymousOwn3r, the security leader of the anarchist hacktivist group Anonymous, has claimed sole responsibility for bringing down GoDaddy, the world's largest domain registrar. GoDaddy reached out to users via Twitter, saying, "Update: Still working on it, but we're making progress. Some service has already been restored. Stick with us."

Why is AnonymousOwn3r targeting the provider (who has not been without controversy)? The motives remain unclear, but AnonymousOwn3er tweeted this earlier today:

 

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/10/big_story_you_missed_5/feed/ 1 Is the Internet making us blue? http://www.salon.com/2012/08/17/our_telling_online_habits_salpart/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/17/our_telling_online_habits_salpart/#comments Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:54:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12981466 Consider two questions. First: Who are you? What makes you different from your peers, in terms of the things you buy, the clothes you wear, and the car you drive (or refuse to)? What makes you unique in terms of your basic psychological make-up—the part of you that makes you do the things you do, say the things you say, and feel the things you feel? And the second question: How do you use the internet?

Scientific American Although these questions may seem unrelated, they’re not. Clearly the content of your internet usage can suggest certain psychological characteristics. Spending a lot of late nights playing high stakes internet poker? Chances are you are a risk taker. Like to post videos of yourself doing karaoke on YouTube? Clearly an extravert. But what about the mechanics of your internet usage—how often you email others, chat online, stream media, or multi-task (switch from one application or website to another)? Can these behaviors—regardless of their content—also predict psychological characteristics? Recent research conducted by a team of computer scientists, engineers, and psychologists suggests that it might. Indeed, their data show that such analysis could predict a particularly important aspect of the self: the tendency to experience depression.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/17/our_telling_online_habits_salpart/feed/ 7 This is your brain on the Internet http://www.salon.com/2012/08/10/internet_use_disorder_salpart/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/10/internet_use_disorder_salpart/#comments Fri, 10 Aug 2012 20:09:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12977835 When I’m riding the L train underneath lower Manhattan, I practically start to shake with anticipation as we approach 6th Avenue, where everyone with an iPhone knows 3G service magically resumes.  We all reach for our devices simultaneously, but as relieved as I am to scroll through my Instagram feed, there’s that corresponding pang of guilt.  We’ve all been so fixated on this idea of screen addiction being indicative of the “big problem” with technology; I know if you’re reading this you’re probably self-conscious about how much time you spend staring at glowing rectangles, too.  So why are we so anxious about our love for the screen, and what exactly is this constant connection doing to the way we relate to the world around us?
ClusterMag
Wired-up writers have mobilized a lot of braincells recently exploring the split between online and embodied life, arguing over the potential for real connection, meaning, and engagement in the network.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/10/internet_use_disorder_salpart/feed/ 8 Internet trolls can’t help themselves http://www.salon.com/2012/08/01/online_comments_are_toxic_salpart/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/01/online_comments_are_toxic_salpart/#comments Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12969966 In the year that I wrote for a blog about Brooklyn real estate, I was regularly plagued by "trolls"--online commenters who write inflammatory or derisive things in public forums, hoping to provoke an emotional response. These commenters called me, and one another, everything from stupid to racist, or sometimes stupid racists. And that was just when I posted the menu of a new café.
AlterNet
The most infamous and offensive of these commenters was a man (we assumed) who called himself "The What." His remarks ranged from insults to threats. "I know where you live and I'm coming for you and your family," he once wrote. The intrigue around The What's identity warranted a cover story in New York magazine. What kind of person would spend so much time, and so much energy, engaging in virtual hate?

The consensus among sociologists and psychologists who study online behavior is that all kinds of people can become trolls--not just the unwound, the immature or the irate. See your perfectly pleasant work neighbor, furiously typing next to you? He might be trolling an Internet site right now.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/01/online_comments_are_toxic_salpart/feed/ 59 Anorexia’s scary online empire http://www.salon.com/2012/07/28/the_internet_and_anorexia_salpart/ http://www.salon.com/2012/07/28/the_internet_and_anorexia_salpart/#comments Sat, 28 Jul 2012 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12966129 ClusterMagOnce upon a time, anorexia was a relatively private matter. The person suffering from it usually denied their affliction to avoid treatment. Most often, it would remain a secret once diagnosed, in part to avoid becoming the subject of local gossip. And once detected, the person in question would undergo treatment and find herself sequestered away from the outside world in a hospital that wouldn’t even allow Barbie or Disney princess paraphernalia to infiltrate its walls, lest it trigger her urge to starve. Hopefully, she would recover. She would go on with her life, and her friends and family would encourage her to eat, maybe relax a little. Her once-secret eating disorder would become something that she had overcome. It was possible that she would even write a memoir about it one day; Wasted; Solitaire; Feeling for the Bones; Thin; I could name at least a dozen that aren’t about eating disorders, but simply memoirs of a troubled life involving starving yourself at one point in a longer line of suffering.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/07/28/the_internet_and_anorexia_salpart/feed/ 5 Cute cats take over the world http://www.salon.com/2012/07/21/loling_with_others_salpart/ http://www.salon.com/2012/07/21/loling_with_others_salpart/#comments Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12960442 Next month, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis will be holding the Internet Cat Video Film Festival (ICVFF), presenting a near-universal but mostly private obsession for collective enjoyment. Like most other people, I have watched a few videos of cats on YouTube. In the spectrum of time wasters and how bad they make me feel, it is an activity I would rank slightly above Facebook voyeurism. When I heard about this film festival, I thought it sounded like the stupidest idea I had ever heard. And, as the board of the L.A. MoCA falls apart in reaction to what is basically a corporate takeover of the museum, it seemed yet another indication of the total dissolution of any hope of seriousness on the part of American art institutions.
Full Stop
But maybe such an alarmist reaction isn’t necessary. Even if getting a bunch of people together to watch cats jump on things is dumb, the project still brings up some interesting questions about how real-space institutions these days interact with the Internet.

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