The Internet Patrol

Herb Vest’s online dating service, True.com, tauts itself as being one of the only, if not the only, online dating services which performs criminal background checks on all of its members. But that is not enough for Vest. Oh no. Vest is now lobbying the legislatures of several states to…

You may have heard about the cities which are coming online and offering free wifi on a city-wide (municipal) basis. What you probably haven’t heard about is the fights which often go on behind the scenes to keep you, the good citizens of these cities, from having access to municipal…

SAN FRANCISCO, May 31 /PRNewswire/ — Is there a link between cell phones and brain tumors? Over the past 15 years, there has been growing concern about this possibility. Part of this concern stems from the fact that there are over one billion cell phone subscribers worldwide, and the number…

MCLEAN, Va., May 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Lingo, the U.S. Internet phone service provider, today became the first VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) provider to offer unlimited phone calling to Mexico. The new Lingo “Unlimited Mexico” VoIP plan provides members of the U.S. Mexican community, among others, the opportunity to use…

STOCKHOLM , Sweden, May 31 /PRNewswire/ — Eleven new gaming sites were recently launched within the company’s network, 24hNetwork. The new sites are marketed by local partners who use 24hPoker’s software for poker and sport betting on the Internet. The sites are targeting players in Russia, Asia, South Europe, Great…

McDonald’s is introducing, I kid you not, downloadable music and ringtones under the golden arches. The offerings, available via Blaze Net kiosks, are McDonald’s latest bid to stay current with the times. Other offerings include store-wide wifi, and McLattes. Said McDonald’s spokesperson Bill Whitman of their newly funkified locations, “It…

VoIP is the new VoIP! Spontania is Video4Skype! “What’s that Aunty?” you ask. “Have you had too many add-shots in your Starbucks today?” Nope! Video over IP is the new “VoIP”! Where VoIP has always stood for Voice over IP (Internet protocol), you can now combine your VoIP with Video…

Talk about spyware versus spyware. Authorities in Isreal have arrested dozens of people, including high level executives of multinational corporations, in what increasingly is developing into the Internet Trojan spyware custerfluck of the year. Only on the Internet can a Trojan horse disgorge its contents in several places at once,…

“Sure, I could get a Mac, but the time I spend with my daughter removing spyware is very precious.” A great line, already being attributed to Intel CEO Paul Otellini, but actually penned by Good Morning Silicon Valley’s John Paczkowski on the GMSV blog. However Paczkowski was reporting on words…

For some reason we have had a lot of searches this week asking how to get rid of Internet cookies. It’s really quite easy, but to make it even easier, we are going to cover it for you here.

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…

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…

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…

Microsoft is advising Windows users who use Internet Explorer to get Netscape 8 off their Windows machines. Well, duh. But, actually they have a good, technical reason for advising their customers to remove Microsoft’s former browser nemesis from their computers: the two can’t peacefully co-exist. Well, duh. No, really

Just in time to make Memorial Day weekend really memorable, both AOL and Yahoo Instant Messengers are being targeted, the former by an Internet worm, the latter by a phishing scam. “hehe i found this funny movie”, says your AOL AIM Instant Messenger buddy. Only it’s not really your buddy,…