Category: Internet Providers
Survey Says! Best ISP Is…
PC World has just released a survey they took of more than 6,000 Internet users, in order to determine who the best ISP was. And the answers may surprise you. The 6,000 survey participants, all PC World subscribers, were asked to rate their ISPs on a scale of 1 to…
Hotmail Users: Wondering Where Your Email Has Gone? Look in Your Junkfolder – Hotmail Requiring Sender ID
Microsoft has just announced that they are now requiring that email sent to Hotmail accounts must use Microsoft Sender I.D. or the email will be marked with a big yellow box and put in the junk folder or maybe even deleted. That big yellow box across the top of the…
Adult-Themed Websites and Surfers Take Double Hit
Webmasters whose websites deal with adult content may soon have to start policing the ages of the models and performers who appear in content on their website, even if they did not generate or solicit the content – indeed even if the content is several years old or was acquired…
Feds Set Sights on ISP Records, Vote to Protect Libraries and Book Stores from Patriot Act
The United States House of Representatives has voted to restrict the Patriot Act so that it cannot be used to pry into the library borrowing and book purchasing of U.S. citizens. You would think that this would be a no-brainer – nobody I know wants to live in a state…
Microsoft Admits to Censoring in China
Earlier this week Aunty reported to you that Microsoft was censoring Chinese users of its new Chinese-based web and blogging portal. Today Silicon.com is reporting that Microsoft has confirmed this in an email to Silicon.com, in which Microsoft admits that it does maintain a list of forbidden words and phrases,…
ISP Not Responsible for Policing Zombies Says Jury of ITs Peers
A mock trial, in which ISPs were sued for damage done by a zombie network to a few fictitious companies’ business and financial interests, found that a jury of IT professionals overwhelmingly held the opinion that the ISPs were not responsible for the damage flowing from their networks via the…
ISP RoadRunner Must Give Up Identity of User Claimed to Slander Public Relations Society of America’s Bolton
A New York judge has ruled that Internet service provider RoadRunner must reveal the identity of a customer who sent email to the Public Relations Society of America’s board of directors, claiming that the Public Relations Society of America’s executive director, Catherine A. Bolton, was not fit for the position….
MSN Joins Google and Yahoo in Blocking Chinese Users from Accessing, Using Forbidden Terms and Content
There’s a hue and cry being raised about Microsoft’s new MSN portal in China not allowing Chinese users to access or share certain “forbidden” sites and ideas on the Internet. In particular, Chinese users of MSN’s blogging service, MSN Spaces, are forbidden from using certain terms in their blog entries,…
Beware Google Archiving Your Entire Google Search History
Google sure does a lot of nifty things with their search and archive capabilities! And one of those things is that it now archives your search history. Meaning that if you are logged in to Google, and perform a Google search, it remembers it for you. And which search results…
Yahoo and Cisco Join Forces and Products to Develop DKIM (Domain Keys + Identified Internet Mail)
Internet web portal and ISP Yahoo, and router and software giant Cisco, have joined forces to jointly produce an anti-spam product based on Yahoo’s Domain Keys and Cisco’s Identified Internet Mail system. Domain Keys, which was announced last year, is Yahoo’s entry into the email authentication space. “Yahoo is receiving…
AOL Instant Messenger Mail Now Available – Taking AIM at a New Market
AOL’s previously announced Instant Messenger-based AIM Mail email system is now a reality. Windows users who upgrade to the new AIM version 5.9 will have access to the new web-mail service, which is one of the first of its kind to integrate instant messenger and email service. As Aunty has…
New Law Would Kill Municipal Wifi Nationwide
It seems like just yesterday that Aunty told you about how ISP and broadband providers are lobbying to prevent municipal wifi, which would keep you from being able to have city-wide free wifi such as some cities are now offering. Well, apparently some of the lobbyists took it to a…
Feds Trying to Gain Wholesale Access to ISP Records Under Patriot Act – Again
The Federal government is arguing, despite rulings by the court to the contrary, that under the Patriot Act they are, or at least should be, allowed to demand customer records and information from ISPs (Internet service providers) in secret, and without a court order. In other words, the Feds are…
Yahoo Sued for Failure to Remove Dirty Pictures of User
According to Cecilia Barnes, men have shown up at her place of employment in Oregon expecting to be able to have sex with her. Which is odd, because she’s not a sex therapist or a prostitute. Perhaps less odd, though, when you learn that, at least according to Barnes, her…
Coffee Shops Start Turning Wifi Off On Weekends
Some coffee shops are starting to tell their customers to “drop in, turn off, and tune in”. Only unlike Timothy Leary, who uttered the original and infamous “turn on, tune in, and drop out”, the coffee shops are talking about free wifi, not drugs. While the number of customers who…