“Reset the Net” is a ‘take back the net’ grassroots campaign, launched on June 5 as a citizen initiative to tell the NSA, with apologies to the Who, “we’re not gonna take it.” But those who have jumped on board are anything but grass level. Heavyweight companies like Google, Yahoo, and Twitter, and orgs such as the ACLU and the EFF, have all jumped on board. And, of course, Edward Snowden.

Stripper Janelle Ambrosia, the unwitting star of the video “Blatant Racism in Cheektowaga NY”, showed off more than her stuff, demonstrating a stunning cluelessness about how to behave in front of your children, or while in the midst of a custody dispute, or..while being filmed. It wasn’t bad enough that she knowingly screamed racial epithets at the fellow, who goes by “IAMOYAB” online, while he was filming her, but she taunted him to put it on YouTube.

Everyone knows that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And every new parent knows that we are hardwired to pay attention to the urgent cries of a child. But how many of us realize that we have been slowly, but steadily, trained to respond to every single new message notification on our phones, computers, and other electronic devices, as they happen?

Everybody is familiar with the concept of open source software – basically software which anybody can use, develop, and enhance without fear of violating copyright or patent. But open source seeds? That is the idea behind the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI).

Users were asked whether an email advertisement sent to them on the basis of a “pre-existing business relationship” was spam. All of the respondents were average Internet users, exactly the sort of user who receives this sort of email from countless businesses based on a prior business relationship with them. And survey says…. a resounding “Yes!” Two-thirds said that email advertisements sent on the basis of a pre-existing business relationship, without express permission, are spam!

The word “selfie” has made it into the Oxford Dictionary. Yes, selfie (or “selfy”) is now officially a word. Not only that, but of all the words that made it into the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) this year, selfie is the word of the year!

An app that monitors your teen driver is nothing new. In fact, teen driving monitor apps have been around for nearly ten years. What is new about the Drive Pulse app is everything that it does, because it also taps into your car’s on-board diagnostics (OBD).

There has been a lot in the news lately about Bitcoins (known in the trade as “BTC”) and Bitcoin Mining, but to the average person it’s still very confusing. What are Bitcoins? How does Bitcoin Mining work? What is the Silk Road, which is often mentioned in the same breath as Bitcoins? And why is Congress holding hearings on Bitcoins? Here are the plain English explanations for all of these.

In the past few years, the term MOOC has become popular as, indeed, have MOOCs themselves. But if you haven’t been in the loop, you may be wondering just what does MOOC stand for, and what is a MOOC?

Do you know who Lily Collins is? Neither did we, but don’t search the Internet to find out! That’s because McAfee, the Internet security software company, has determined that in 2013, searches for Lily Collins were the #1 celebrity searches most likely to cause your computer to be infected with a virus or other malware. In other words, Collins, who, it turns out, is the daughter of rocker Phil Collins, the lead actess in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, and recently was on People’s World’s Most Beautiful Women list, is the most dangerous celebrity for whom to search right now.

If they are to be believed, Tumbledown Trails golf course was trying to do the right thing when they offered a special 9/11 discount to their golf course in Verona, Wisconsin. But, they clearly went about it in the wrong way, and the wrath they incurred has apparenty led to their taking their Facebook page down.

If you’ve seen the phrase TL;DR popping up, and are wondering just what the heck TL;DR means or stands for, well, you’re not alone. Interestingly, the Oxford Dictionary just approved TL;DR as an official…um…word, for lack of a better term, along with fellow new word, “selfie”.

‘Selfie’ has joined the lexicon of words officially recognized by the Oxford Dictionary. The official Oxford English Dictionary (OED) definition of a ‘selfie’ is “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.”

In response to Boston Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s picture appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone, the police photographer who documented his capture, Sgt. Sean Murphy, released images of that night to Boston Magazine, which published them on their website. We explain why he did it, and what’s next.

Last week we told you about the Kickstarter scandal, in which the book Above the Game was allowed as a Kickstarter project. Some people called the ‘how to pick up and treat women’ book a “rape manual”, objecting to some of the advice in the book as being about ‘forcing a woman to have sex’.