internet

Anonymous
Devotes Friday
to Mocking ISIS

Dec 8, 2015 3:05 PM CST

Anonymous Devotes Friday to Mocking ISIS

Group wants everyone to take part in #trollingday

(Newser) - Anonymous has a task for everyone on Friday: Troll ISIS, the Daily Dot reports. In a note making its rounds via Anonymous-linked Twitter accounts, the hackers call on readers to do their part on #trollingday on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and "in the real world" to ridicule, mock, and...

Facebook Brings
Workers' Internet
to a Crawl One
Day a Week

Oct 28, 2015 10:39 AM CDT

Facebook Brings Workers' Internet to a Crawl One Day a Week

'2G Tuesdays' allow workers to experience slow speeds of emerging markets

(Newser) - Understanding breeds empathy. At least, that's the Facebook philosophy when it comes to Internet speed in developing nations, which is why once a week the company now encourages employees to dump their super-fast speeds at work and opt for a 2G experience, NBC News reports. The initiative is called...

TV, Internet, Phone Prices Have Spiked in Last 5 Years

Oct 13, 2015 6:40 PM CDT

TV, Internet, Phone Prices Have Spiked in Last 5 Years

And service isn't getting any better

(Newser) - You probably don't need another reason to hate your cable provider, but here's one anyway: The average customer's bill in 2015 is nearly $42 higher than in 2010, NBC News reports. That's an increase of 35%, according to market research firm SNL Kagan, which says bundling...

The Internet Is Obsessed With First-Person Essays

OPINION

Sep 14, 2015 1:59 PM CDT

The Internet Is Obsessed With First-Person Essays

And that can be a bad thing, writes Laura Bennett

(Newser) - Go to almost any media outlet's website and you'll see a section for first-person essays with headlines like "I Was Cheating on My Boyfriend When He Died" or "My Gynecologist Found a Ball of Cat Hair in My Vagina." While such confessional writing has always...

4Chan User May Have Chopped Off Toe for Site

Sep 1, 2015 10:23 AM CDT

4Chan User May Have Chopped Off Toe for Site

Anonymous poster apparently decided to honor request

(Newser) - One of the day's strangest, and most gruesome, tales comes courtesy of Mike Pearl at Vice , who recounts how a 4chan user apparently cut off a significant part of one of his toes at the request of another user. Posts at 4chan, often on the dark side, don't...

6 Signs You
May Suffer From
'Digital Amnesia'

STUDY

Jul 2, 2015 1:38 PM CDT

6 Signs You May Suffer From 'Digital Amnesia'

Reliance on using digital devices to store info may be making us forget things: study

(Newser) - Are you suffering from the "Google Effect"? According to a Kaspersky Lab survey of 1,000 consumers ages 16 and older, no age group is immune to what's also known as "digital amnesia," a phenomenon that Kaspersky says occurs when we forget information because we'...

Major ISPs Cheating Us on Internet Speeds We Pay For

STUDY SAYS

Jun 23, 2015 2:51 PM CDT

Major ISPs Cheating Us on Internet Speeds We Pay For

Nation's largest ISPs slowing down networks affecting 75% of wireline households

(Newser) - Thanks to new FCC rules put out this year to ensure net neutrality and keep all online data equal, major Internet service providers (think Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner) aren't supposed to hold our Internet speeds hostage. But that's exactly what's happening, per a study by an...

Cat Videos Are Good for You

STUDY SAYS

Jun 17, 2015 2:45 AM CDT

Cat Videos Are Good for You

This study's no time-waster, researcher says

(Newser) - Two million cat videos posted on YouTube with around 26 billion views last year adds up to an awful lot of time watching funny cats, but it's not completely wasted time, according to an Indiana University researcher. Media professor Jessica Gall Myrick surveyed around 7,000 people and discovered...

Scientists'
Latest Craze:
'the Dress'

NEW STUDIES

May 17, 2015 6:50 AM CDT

Scientists' Latest Craze: 'the Dress'

Blue and black? White and gold? Assumptions about lighting are key

(Newser) - Not one, but three new studies emerged this week in a scientific journal seeking to explain the still-puzzling Internet phenomenon that is the Dress . "There will be dozens and dozens of papers about it over the years. This is just the beginning," Wellesley professor Bevil Conway tells the...

All the Internet Addresses Will Be Gone by the Summer

May 14, 2015 11:48 AM CDT

All the Internet Addresses Will Be Gone by the Summer

Nearly all of the 4.3B IPv4 addresses created in early '80s are now in use

(Newser) - Engineers who created 4.3 billion Internet Protocol addresses back in 1981 probably thought that by the time we ran through all those, we'd be puttering around in flying cars. Flying cars are going to be a while , but it looks like our IP numbers are finally up: The...

Comcast Promises
America's Fastest Internet

Apr 3, 2015 3:23 AM CDT

Comcast Promises America's Fastest Internet

But it may not be universal—or cheap

(Newser) - The fastest Internet speeds in America will soon be found in Atlanta, according to a Comcast blog post announcing its ultra-fast, 2-gigabits-per-second Gigabit Pro service. The company says it will be at least twice as fast as any other residential Internet service on the market, including Google Fiber, and it...

Guy Selling His House Over Comcast 'Incompetence'

Mar 28, 2015 4:15 PM CDT

Guy Selling His House Over Comcast 'Incompetence'

Washington state man couldn't get an Internet hookup

(Newser) - A Washington state man is throwing in the towel after months of frustration trying to get broadband. In fact, he's planning to sell his new house—likely at a loss—and blames Comcast and CenturyLink for misleading him about getting his home online, Consumerist reports. The man, identified by...

Only 'Radical' Fixes Can
Save Our Crappy Internet

OPINION

Mar 11, 2015 12:48 PM CDT

Only 'Radical' Fixes Can Save Our Crappy Internet

Gizmodo's Adam Clark Estes sees hope in startup ISPs, city-run networks

(Newser) - America's Internet isn't just slow, it's "slow and expensive," writes Adam Clark Estes at Gizmodo . In a post that unpacks how the Internet operates—from its physical infrastructure, to the financial deals that direct traffic, to the technically antiquated "last mile" that brings service...

Lindsey Graham's Not Alone: Lots of People Don't Email

Mar 9, 2015 3:27 PM CDT

Lindsey Graham's Not Alone: Lots of People Don't Email

9% of Americans say they've never sent one before

(Newser) - Lindsey Graham, take heart: Up to 15% of Americans don't use email either and may not go online at all. The South Carolina Republican revealed yesterday during a conversation about Hillary Clinton's emails that he had never sent an email before. "I don't know what that...

This Dress Is
Breaking the Internet

Feb 27, 2015 7:50 AM CST

This Dress Is Breaking the Internet

People are deeply confused about what color it is

(Newser) - Is it white and gold—or blue and black? A picture of a dress uploaded to Tumblr has created what Gawker calls "an Internet schism that may never be healed," with the opposing sides unable to fathom each other's view of the dress. At BuzzFeed , the white...

FCC: Internet Is a Public Utility

Feb 26, 2015 12:49 PM CST

FCC: Internet Is a Public Utility

Agency approves 'net neutrality' rules

(Newser) - Net neutrality wins, for now: The FCC today decided to regulate the Internet as if it were a public utility, reports CNET . The rules mean that Internet service providers must treat content on their networks equally—they can't, for example, speed up some traffic in "fast lanes" because...

Teen Battling
Internet Addiction
Cuts Off Own Hand

Feb 3, 2015 2:19 PM CST

Teen Battling Internet Addiction Cuts Off Own Hand

19-year-old is hospitalized in China, where 14% of youth may be addicted

(Newser) - About 14% of China's youths may be addicted to the Internet, says a psychologist; he runs a rehab center, or " boot camp ," that takes a tough approach to the weaning process, the Telegraph reports (a New York Times video makes the place look like a prison). Others,...

How a Criminal Found America's First Big Sex Tape

And distributed it with money from a mobster's son

(Newser) - Remember an old sex tape, before Kim Kardashian, starring an actress and a rocker on a yacht? Well, the 1996 video that fully unveiled Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee only went public because an electrician stole it, a mobster's son funded it, and lawyers couldn't contain it, Rolling ...

80% of Dark Web Traffic
Revolves Around Pedophilia

study says

Jan 1, 2015 12:02 PM CST

80% of Dark Web Traffic Revolves Around Pedophilia

Study finds child pornography is the biggest draw among anonymous users

(Newser) - Between March and September of last year, four out of five visits to a major part of the Dark Web—the anonymous corner of the Internet—were to sites exhibiting the sexual abuse of children, says a new study picked up by Wired . These sites account for only 2% of...