News

Once it’s out on the Web it’s there forever right?  But the European Union is turning that idea of irretrievable data on its head with a court ruling today  that could signal the end of what’s left of open, and free, publishing on the Web.

A top EU court has ruled Google must amend some search results at the request of ordinary people in a test of the so-called “right to be forgotten”.  The only thing worse than Google are lawyers, so I’m not sure who I”m rooting for in this case.
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You’ve got mail

You probably remember AOL’s trademark “you’ve got mail” chime every time you logged in to the service, but by now that is a distant memory. After all, the Internet has expanded in size and speed since then. No more waiting patiently for someone to get off the phone so you can use the Internet. (more…)

Japan’s strict firearms-control laws may not be enough to stop high-tech gun producers.  They’ve been put to the test against the latest in digital manufacturing with the arrest of a man who allegedly made 3D-printed guns.  A raid last month on his home in Kawasaki outside Tokyo turned up five printed guns, two of which can fire real bullets.  However, no bullets were recovered. (more…)

While the FCC is in the process of determining what sort of regulation should be applied to the telecommunications industry,Level 3 drops a bombshell. Will these additional concerns further complicate the FCC’s decision making on Net neutrality argument? (more…)

As you may have heard, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has new proposals on net neutrality – the idea that all Internet traffic should be treated equally by broadband providers. Some consumer advocates claim the new plan is a reversal of the previous FCC policy, while others, say it’s nothing of the sort.

Who’s right? And what do these new rules mean for you?

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by Kim Komando, Special for USA TODAY

A few years ago, a cable technician was working on the lines outside my house. When I mentioned I was paying for the company’s top-tier Internet service, he snorted and said, “You can’t get that tier of service with these lines.”

It was a lesson to me: We have to always be on guard in dealing with these large cable and Internet companies. (more…)

As insecure as passwords generally are, they’re not going away anytime soon. Every year you have more and more passwords to deal with, and every year they get easier and easier to break. You need a strategy.

The best way to explain how to creating a secure passwords is to explain how they’re broken. The general attack model is what’s known as an offline password-guessing attack. (more…)

No contract phone plans that you’ve never heard of!

The mobile phone industry is changing rapidly, and it’s all good for you. It used to be that signing a two-year contract with a major carrier was the only way you could get the newest phones and the best coverage. That’s not so true anymore.

Instead of a standard 2-year contract, you can bypass it and purchase an unsubsidized, unlocked phone – even leading-edge models.
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The FDA has proposed new rules that would bring electronic cigarettes under its regulations for tobacco products, even though that’s not exactly what they are.

The New York Times broke this story yesterday (April 24th), saying the FDA was preparing to announce “sweeping new rules” to regulate the sale of e-cigs, cigars, gels, and pipes. The proposed rules bring electronic nicotine delivery systems aka e-cigs under the exact same stringent rules as Marlboros.
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Many Internet service providers are now giving their customers combined devices that function as both a modem and a wireless router. With these devices, you don’t have to buy a router — but you can, if you like.

While separate routers can be more powerful, configurable, and feature-filled, that isn’t necessarily a good thing for everyone. Whether you should get a separate router or not depends on what trade-offs you want to make. (more…)