Internet News

June 2008

Surfers Beware: Danger Could Lurk at .hk, .cn

newser | Associated Press | Jun 4, 08 3:57 PM CDT

A study by antivirus software firm McAfee warns Web surfers to be cautious of sites on certain domains, the AP reports, with corner-cutting registration companies often skipping security precautions. The domains .hk, .cn and .info were found to be riskiest. More »
'Sketchy' Plane Parts For Sale Online

newser | BusinessWeek | Jun 4, 08 10:20 AM CDT

Spare Boeing and Airbus parts of dubious origin have been found for sale on Internet sites such as Craiglist, BusinessWeek reports. The parts, including vital valves and gears, are being sold by at least 24 vendors—mainly in China and the US—without FAA approval or documentation that they've been inspected for airworthiness. More »
'News Fatigue' Is Symptom of Youth's Shift

newser | Associated Press | Jun 2, 08 1:08 PM CDT

Young adults find themselves so inundated with headlines and so distracted by other media that they have trouble consuming the news, the AP reports of a new study. The project followed 18 ethnically diverse 18-34 year olds, and found that though they wanted in-depth news, they had trouble sorting through a barrage of headlines and updates. More »

May 2008

New Food Blogs Take Devotion to a New Level

newser | Wall Street Journal | May 28, 08 7:07 PM CDT

Food blogs are usually simple things, fun and easy to create, writes Lee Gomes in the Wall Street Journal . And then there are the increasingly popular "cook-through" blogs, in which devoted chefs of all skill levels pick a book, say the French Laundry Cookbook or the Gourmet Cookbook , and make every single recipe. More »
Who's Afraid of Google Health?

newser | Atlantic Monthly | May 23, 08 11:51 AM CDT

Google's new health record-sharing service has privacy advocates' hearts racing. But the benefits outweigh the risks, both in costs and potential lives saved, James Gibney argues in the Atlantic. Ready access to personal health records could prevent medical errors like incorrectly prescribed meds while saving billions in related costs. More »
Microsoft, Yahoo in Talks for Partial Buyout

newser | Wall Street Journal | May 18, 08 4:05 PM CDT

Microsoft is back at Yahoo's bargaining table, this time seeking a partial acquisition of the Internet portal, the Wall Street Journal reports. Buyout talks fizzled earlier this month, but billionaire Carl Icahn's push for a proxy war has left Yahoo honchos feeling shareholder pressure to cut a deal, though today they warned one may not happen. More »
Teen Shares Rape Tale on YouTube

newser | CNN | May 16, 08 8:05 AM CDT

After her case was dropped by the courts, a 16-year-old girl turned to YouTube to share her story of rape, CNN reports. “It's the only way I know that someone out there in the world is going to listen to me," says the tearful girl in her video. She joins a growing number of young people seeking help with abuse via the Internet—a method that can be dangerous, experts warn. More »
'Mommy Weirdest' Blogger Tells It Like It Is: Depressing

newser | ABC News | May 14, 08 8:40 PM CDT

The latest irreverent star of cyberspace is a former Mormon mommy blogger who isn't afraid to write that motherhood can be "awful." Heather Armstrong of Salt Lake City loves her 4-year-old daughter, but she complains that "sometimes it's really unpleasant and you turn around and you're like, 'What did I do to my life?''' More »
List Guy Craig Branches Out

newser | New York Times | May 12, 08 10:40 AM CDT

Everyone knows Craigslist, but Craig himself is getting a little restless. Craig Newmark is spending more time and money on outside projects, the New York Times reports, even with his company in a high-profile tiff with eBay. Newmark, 55, says he spends half his time on customer-service issues, the other half on public-service projects and causes like Barack Obama's campaign. More »
Spam, Curse of Web, Turns 30

newser | Washington Post | May 3, 08 11:06 AM CDT

Spam turns 30 today, but don't break out the champagne just yet: The junk e-mail is as healthy as ever, frustrating tech experts desperate to blow out its candles. It all started on May 3, 1978, with a pitch for a new computer on a government-run precursor to the Internet. Even then, the reaction was fierce, the Washington Post says. More »
Craigslist Feared eBay Takeover

newser | New York Times | May 1, 08 5:10 PM CDT

Why did eBay sue Craigslist last week? Craiglist's fear of a hostile takeover played a role, the New York Times reports. The relationship between the classified ads site and minority shareholder eBay began to sour after eBay launched rival site Kijiji. Craigslist’s directors smelled a takeover in the offing and reorganized their stock to reduce the auction giant’s holding from 28.04% to 24.85%. EBay lost its right to elect a director—and sued. More »

April 2008

Daily Paper Dumps Print Edition for Web

newser | New York Times | Apr 28, 08 4:56 AM CDT

In an ominous sign of the times for printed news, a struggling 90-year-old Wisconsin daily newspaper is shutting down its daily print operation, but will continue to exist online, the New York Times reports. Most of the 18,000 current subscribers of Madison's afternoon Capital Times are switching to the city's bigger daily. More »
OMG Gatsby Was a Fraud!

newser | Associated Press | Apr 24, 08 9:07 PM CDT

Two-thirds of American teens aren’t keeping their LOLs to themselves: They're turning in papers and lab reports with abbreviations, dropped punctuation, and other informalities inherent to Internet and text-message vocabularies, the AP reports. Kids who write blogs and have Facebook pages are more likely to slip from formality in their schoolwork, a new survey shows—but OMG! grown-ups aren’t that upset about it. More »
Wikipedia Goes to Print —in German

newser | Associated Press | Apr 24, 08 4:55 PM CDT

Wikipedia will soon hit bookshelves, the AP reports: German giant Bertelsmann AG is publishing a condensed print edition of the user-generated encyclopedia. The One-Volume Wikipedia Encyclopedia will contain 50,000 of the most-searched-for German entries this year—and it could be the first in an annual series. “A yearbook really can be a documentation of the zeitgeist,” said a publishing exec. More »
Infinite Bandwidth Is Coming

newser | MIT Technology Review | Apr 24, 08 4:29 PM CDT

In 2000, technology watcher George Gilder argued in a book called Telecosm that infinite bandwidth and instant communication were on the way, thanks to booming construction of fiber-optic cable. Eight years later, post-bust (both dot-com and telecom), the “telecosm” is not far from what Gilder predicted, writes Mark Williams in Technology Review . More »
Ballmer to Yahoo: That's Our Final Offer

newser | Bloomberg | Apr 23, 08 2:48 PM CDT

Microsoft won't raise its $44.6 billion takeover bid for Yahoo despite the Internet firm's strong first-quarter earnings, Bloomberg reports. "We are prepared to go forward without a merger," said CEO Steve Ballmer, who has threatened a proxy shareholder revolt to push the deal through, possibly at a lower price, if Yahoo didn’t agree to the original bid by Saturday. More »
Microsoft Syncs Phone, PC Data with 'Live Mesh'

newser | Reuters | Apr 23, 08 12:10 PM CDT

Microsoft is testing a new product that will allow users to link data across multiple electronic devices through the internet—so the picture you took on your phone can be in the digital picture frame in your home within minutes. It’s a big step for Microsoft, which until now has resisted the “cloud computing” movement, Reuters reports. More »
How-to Vids Breed New Industry

newser | New York Times | Apr 23, 08 11:57 AM CDT

Take an idea, a video camera and an Internet connection, add a little how-to know-how and a portal like YouTube, and start counting your clicks. Reach enough viewers, and start counting your cash. That’s the premise behind a burgeoning Web industry attracting entrepreneurs and investors hoping to catch the next big wave, the New York Times reports. More »
EBay Sues Craigslist as 'Family' Kerfuffle Gets Nasty

newser | New York Times | Apr 23, 08 3:15 AM CDT

The uneasy relationship between Craigslist and eBay, its competitor-turned-minority shareholder, has taken a turn for the worse. EBay has filed a lawsuit against Craigslist, accusing the classified ad site of "unfairly" diluting the auction giant's stake in it by 10%, the New York Times reports. Craigslist has fired back, calling eBay "unethical" and accusing it of aiming for a hostile takeover. More »
Competitive, Social Aspects Make Video Games Addictive

newser | MSNBC | Apr 22, 08 7:23 PM CDT

The American Medical Association may not yet rank video gaming as addictive, but players who call World of Warcraft “World of Warcrack” know the score, writes Kristin Kalning on msnbc.com. But what is it that drives obsessed players to neglect their jobs, their health and even their kids? Competing and socializing, says a therapist who treats Internet and computer addiction. More »