The Internet

It made record execs cringe, but Lil Wayne's three-year mixtape giveaway sealed his megastar status, reports Rolling Stone . After his last album underperformed, Wayne built an underground following with four free double-albums released on the Internet. The risky move launched Wayne's new single "Lollipop" to Number One on Billboard's Hot 100; the track became the fastest-selling ringtone in history. More »

Ever wonder how much people at Google or Microsoft really make? Just-launched Glassdoor.com wants to tell you, TechCrunch reports. Essentially, the site collects self-submitted compensation reports and reviews for as many jobs at as many firms as possible. Open to everyone are full details for Googe, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco; users can get dirt on other outfits by submitting their own details. More »

Although he’s thrilled with all the time he saves using the Internet for research and awed by the vast intellectual opportunities available to every web surfer, Nicholas Carr is a bit disconcerted that he no longer has the patience for reading books or long articles. With his netizen mind fidgeting and losing the thread after a few pages, Carr wonders in the Atlantic : What is the net doing to our brains? More »

A new kind of open social networking is gaining a foothold with online leaders. “Lifestreaming” services like FriendFeed—launched in February by ex-Google employees—let users bring online social activities from various sources together in one feed. Leader FriendFeed is logging 150,000 visitors a month, but the big players won’t cede ground without a fight, one VC told the Financial Times . More »

A new website will email godless friends and family left behind after you’ve been taken to heaven in the Rapture. For $40 per year, Youvebeenleftbehind.com will store any emails and documents for you, ABC reports—then send them about six days after the Lord hath taken away. The server will know the time has come when its employees don’t log on. More »

Republicans can't get no satisfaction—at least according to several anti-McCain videos set to air on YouTube by pro-Dem marketing group Truth Through Action. The premier video features a steamy bedroom romp that turns suddenly icy when a hot bar date discovers an autographed McCain photo in a nightstand. As if. More »

Three top Internet providers have agreed to block known child pornography hot spots, thanks to some strong-arm tactics from New York AG Andrew Cuomo, the New York Times reports. After an 8-month investigation, Cuomo threatened to come down on Time Warner, Verizon, and Sprint for fraud and deceptive business practices. The Internet giants acquiesced. More »

Amazon's new digital video service could be behind the glitches that have been plaguing the site, reports the New York Times . The online retailer was knocked offline for two hours last week and suffered sporadic problems yesterday. Analysts believe the company may be rejigging its distribution system ahead of the relaunch of its Amazon Unbox movie and TV download service. Outages were mostly limited to the US, where the service is expected to debut. More »

Every web user has come across CAPTCHAs: wavy-lettered depiction of words you must retype as text. Most pay them no mind, but, Lev Grossman writes in Time , we should reflect upon completing one. They're one of the rare visible skirmishes in the largely invisible war between spammers and security programmers. But besides that, they are quite literally tests of our humanity. More »

The 44th president will almost certainly kick off his term by quitting email cold turkey, Jamie Sneider writes in the Weekly Standard . With executive-branch communication subject to public-disclosure law, President Bush hasn't send a single message, the former White House aide says—a coping mechanism that "fails to strike the right balance." More »

A judge has ordered two teens to create and post an apology video on YouTube as punishment for a vicious prank, Florida Today reports. The boys were convicted of battery and criminal mischief after posting video of one of them throwing a soda back at a drive-thru fast-food server after yelling, “Fire in the hole.” More »

Investor Carl Icahn broadened his attacks on Yahoo today, targeting not only the recent failure of a Microsoft takeover deal but longtime performance issues, the Wall Street Journal reports. "Why did you permit Google to leave you in the dust?" he wrote to the board. More »

A YouTube video assembled by a Ron Paul supporter is a “devastating” blast at the John McCain campaign, the Jed Report blog contends. The piece focuses on Iraq, playing and re-playing the Republican's suggestion that Baghdad has neighborhoods safe enough for generals to walk around unprotected—and juxtaposing them with stunned rebuttals from Wolf Blitzer and Pat Buchanan. More »

The MTV generation is pushing middle age, and its favored video-delivery system is falling victim to YouTube, the Independent reports. Younger audiences–those key 16- to 24-year-olds–turn to the Internet for the hottest new music, and MTV's attempts to reconnect have failed. They include stabs at social networking and user-generated content. More »

Cable companies are wooing Wall Street by saying they’ll offset expensive implementation of a new, high-speed software protocol by metering broadband Internet access. Bad move, Om Malik writes on GigaOm. Flat-rate high-speed access has enabled recent revolutionary innovation in the telecom business, which led to almost 70 million broadband subscriptions in 2007, and a cash cow for the cable companies. More »

If you’re still using the Internet Explorer or Safari that came with your computer, it’s just about time to upgrade. Mozilla's Firefox, the leading free, open-source, nonprofit Web browser, has a shiny new 3.0 version in beta testing, and it’s “the best Web browser out there,” Walter Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal . More »

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 »

As vast as the Internet is, every blog post can be summed up into pretty much one of seven basic types, explains Lore Sjoberg in Wired: Be upset! "Terrible things are happening in one of the following: the world, the web, or a TV show you really like." Buy a thing! Screw mass media, let me post about the crappy gadget I must have and let's "shove advertising down each other's throats." Animals are cute! Though beware: "animals also includes babies and children younger than 8." More »

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 »

Though Facebook cited privacy concerns in pulling the plug on a partnership with Google aimed at making the Web more social, dollar signs are more likely behind its withdrawal from Friend Connect, the Washington Post reports. "What Facebook is after really is control over their users," one analyst says of the threat to the company's advertising hold. More »