First, the French Senate "voted overwhelmingly" (297-15) late last week to create a sort of digital three strikes law, which after the third strike, would cut people off from the Internet. It's not entirely clear how a law like this would be enforced, especially considering the fact that people can access the Internet from home, from their workplace, and also from free, public Wi-Fi hot spots, not to mention at other locations such as a public library.

The bill now heads to the French National Assembly for final approval.

But, as the BBC reported this morning:

Continue Reading...

Thanks to the Globe and Mail for a fuller, and more accurate, transcript than the one provided by CTV via the Washington Post -- which, however, included the first few seconds in its transcript.

Around 0:04:

Continue Reading...

The bins apparently are made of steel, which reduces the impact of an explosion, by absorbing shrapnel and the heat of the explosion.

According to various British newspapers, the City of London and Media Metrica have a 15-year agreement to install 50 trash bins (each with two screens) around the city, in exchange for operating the information channel (upon which the company can likely run advertising). Otherwise, the units apparently cost  about $50,000 each -- plus, they weigh about a ton -- so they're probably not going to be in your neighborhood anytime soon.

Continue Reading...

Not surprisingly, a couple of big Silicon Valley companies have come out against the measure, including Google and, most recently, Apple. But in a big print ad in the San Jose Mercury News today, a bunch of tech leaders are putting their name to opposing this proposition. There's also a related Facebook group. (In related news, the Wall Street Journal reported that the No on Proposition 8 Web site was hit by a cyberattack yesterday.)

These include David Filo (founder of Yahoo), Chuck Geschke (founder of Adobe Systems), John Morgridge (former CEO of Cisco), Jack Dorsey (chairman of Twitter), Sheryl Sandberg (COO, Facebook), Michael Moritz (Sequoia Capital) and many others.

Continue Reading...

Yesterday, Intel and Asus announced a new site, WePC.com, which allows anyone to contribute ideas on how to build a new laptop. You submit a written description of a computer that you'd like to see built, and if enough people like the idea and vote favorably for it, Intel will power it and Asus will build it.

In  flipping through the site, I saw a few ideas I like: "light manipulating LCD screen to give a clear image in all light environment," or a LowJack PC. But some of the ideas are a bit out-there, like a laptop with a built-in scanner and photo printer. Neat, but honestly, how practical (not to mention expensive) would a computer like this actually be?

Continue Reading...

While it's pretty clear how this is useful in a business-type situation, I don't think I'll be transitioning to using entirely Web-based apps anytime soon. Heck, even with Gmail around, I still prefer to download my e-mail the old-fashioned way, using a POP3 mail client (I roll with Thunderbird). And I'll keep doing my writing in a similar fashion, pounding out my words on a no-frills text editor to just get my words out onto the page, and in Microsoft Word for serious formatting, line editing and spell checking.

Continue Reading...

Its backers are a substantial group of academics (Harvard, Berkeley, USC), other nongovernmental organizations (Committee to Protect Journalists, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights Watch), only three tech companies (Yahoo, Google, Microsoft), a couple of financial companies (Calvert Group, Trillium Asset Management) and a few wild cards like Rebecca MacKinnon (a longtime China Internet watcher) and the U.N. Special Representative to the Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights, who only has observer status.

Continue Reading...

Am I registered to vote?

Sadly, there isn't an way to do this online yet. So the easiest way to determine if you're registered to vote or not (if you don't know already) is to call your local Registrar of Voters or Elections Office. The League of Women Voters has a straightforward Web site, which gives you the phone number of your local office when you type in your ZIP Code. Scroll down a bit to find the result.

Can I vote early?

Right below the result telling you by when you were supposed to register will be a link to your local office telling you if and where you can vote early in your area.

Do I need a photo I.D.?

Continue Reading...

Effective April 2009, the Christian Science Monitor announced today that it would cease daily publication in the traditional dead tree format.  It's only remaining print product will be a single weekend edition.

The Monitor, according to the Associated Press, has suffered from a diminishing print readership, while attaining 5 million page views per month.

I know that the Monitor is still a well-respected paper, but honestly, I don't know anyone who reads it regularly (except for maybe a few journalism professors), and so it seems  that this is the way to go if they want to survive.

As Andie Tucher, an associate professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, told the AP, the Monitor is usually a second-read analysis newspaper, not a must-read:

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

Since I've had an iPhone, I've found that if I know I'm going to be somewhere like waiting for a friend in a cafe for a half-hour, or just chilling out at a bar for awhile, I almost certainly won't take my laptop with me. My iPhone can easily check my e-mail (Wi-Fi or EDGE only, as I'm on the first-gen iPhone), I can read the newspaper online, and I can  listen to public radio podcasts while doing so. My laptop largely stays at home.

The Journal article also has some data (albeit preliminary) to back up its claim.

In a survey of 460 iPhone users from March by Rubicon Consulting Inc., more than 28% of respondents strongly agreed and 29% mildly agreed when asked whether the iPhone was replacing their use of laptops.

Continue Reading...

While the body scanners are currently in use in some E.U. countries, including the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the spokeswoman called the use of these scanners "nonsense." Further, other E.U. lawmakers on Thursday had dubbed the scanners a "virtual strip search" -- and it's easy to see why.

As photos in the German magazine Der Spiegel clearly show, a full body scan of a woman clearly reveals the shape and outline of her breasts and vaginal area, while a scan of a man reveals his penis and testicles. Heck, based on the scan alone, you can just about figure out what religion he is -- perhaps this is the new security tactic for finding Muslims and Jews among us?

Continue Reading...

So what exactly has happened? Largely, the problem has been what's been dubbed "vote flipping" or "vote switching" -- which is exactly what it sounds like. According to a report by my buddy Scott Finn over at West Virginia Public Broadcasting from late last week:

Voters in at least two West Virginia counties -- Jackson and Putnam -- say electronic voting machines are switching their votes from Democrats to Republicans.

The two county clerks, both Republicans, say they don't think there's a problem. But these voting problems have gotten the attention of everyone from CNN to liberal website The Huffington Post.

So far, eight voters from Jackson and Putnam counties have come forward to say their electronic voting machines kept changing their votes from Democrats to Republicans -- usually, from Obama to McCain.

Continue Reading...

According to an account in the Daily Mail, Read left a negative comment for his seller, and wrote: "Item was scratched, chipped and not the model advertised on Mr. Jones's eBay account."

Now normally, if buyer and seller don't seem to get along and have a dispute over the particular feedback that was left, eBay has a mediation service designed for this express purpose. Apparently the seller, Joel Jones, 26, never contacted this service to resolve this issue -- and instead, he went straight to legal action.

Jones then sent Read a letter threatening him with libel unless he retracts the feedback message.

According to the Daily Mail, the letter reads: "The negative feedback you left on October 3 regarding Samsung F700 was unfair and is damaging to my business's reputation and ability to trade. We require a signed statement accepting that the feedback is unfair."

Continue Reading...

The Federal Communications Commission recently completed a years-long study examining whether using white spaces for something else would in fact disrupt television broadcasts or wireless microphone signals. There were months of FCC field testing -- your tax dollars at work! The conclusion? That group of commishes appears ready to approve the opening up of white space when they meet for a vote on Nov. 4. Even FCC chairman Kevin Martin said he supports opening up white spaces.

Continue Reading...

The first, which debuted earlier this month, is called Mail Goggles. Despite the fact that it was the butt of a joke on NPR's Wait Wait ... Don't tell me!, Mail Goggles is designed to be a barrier to prevent you from drunk e-mailing your ex.

As Jon Perlow, a Gmail engineer wrote on the Official Gmail Blog:

Continue Reading...