Google's Schmidt mocked in Times Square ads

by Tom Krazit

Consumer Watchdog took its crusade against Google to new heights Thursday, running ads in New York's Times Square blasting CEO Eric Schmidt on privacy issues.

The group's Inside Google site produced two videos (hosted on YouTube, of course) depicting Schmidt as a creepy maniacal ice-cream truck driver handing out free ice cream to children while conducting full body scans in order to absorb private information through "Google Analytics." They sort of have to be seen to be believed.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20015495-265.html#ixzz0yRfVe0bs

Trade groups: policing our digital copyrights is just too hard

By Nate Anderson 

Eagles drummer and singer Don Henley has a world of trouble on his mind, and he hopes that Congress will lighten his load... by gutting the best part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Defending his copyrights in the digital age is just too hard for Henley and his labels, because it requires constant vigilance of both mainstream user-upload sites like YouTube and dodgier destinations like BitTorrent trackers.

In comments to Rolling Stone last week, Henley admitted that the "the onus of legally pursuing infringement has always been on copyright owners,"

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/trade-groups-policing-our-digital-copyrights-is-just-too-hard.ars

Old Digg Crushes New Digg in Reader Vote

By  Ben Parr 

In the debate between the old version of Digg and the new Digg, the readers have spoken.

Last week, Digg launched version 4.0 of the popular social news website. It’s been a rocky road pre-launch, so why would it be any different post-launch?

Since the launch of the New Digg, which introduced the ability to follow friends, a faster architecture and personalized news,users have been in revolt, mostly over the types of stories reaching the front page. Digg  has since addressed some of these issues, but the debate rages on.

http://mashable.com/2010/09/01/old-digg-crushes-new-digg-in-reader-vote/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable+(Mashable)

The Micro Compact Home

By Jon King

 Some 20 years ago I worked briefly for an architect in the UK called Richard Horden. He had been the project architect for London’s Stansted Airport and had a fascination for the technology of aircraft and sailing boats. His studio in London’s Golden Square was full of wonderful models of buildings boats and airplanes. In fact he had come to my attention as the designer and manufacturer of the “yacht house”, which as the name suggests was a house built entirely of masts spars and rigging. It was quite a wonderful looking house that alluded to a world of lightweight responsive houses. The world of mass housing has gone on pretty much as always and the yacht house remains something of a 1980’s enigma.

http://theage.domain.com.au/blogs/mypad/the-micro-compact-home/20100901-14mou.html

Net Neutrality's New Enemy: The Mythical Mushy Middle

From www.huffingtonpost.com

The fight over net neutrality is red hot right now. Since news broke that Google and Verizon were hatching a plan to carve up the Internet, millions have woken up to the fact that the Internet is in jeopardy and the would-be watchdogs at the Federal Communications Commission aren't doing much about it.

Those of us who've been in the trenches the past few years defending the free and open Internet from a corporate takeover understand that -- like in any high-stakes political debate -- things can get a little ugly. When you're challenging the interests of giant corporations like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, you have to expect they're going to spread misinformation, call you names, hire astroturf front groups to attack you, and spend gobs and gobs of money to co-opt Congress and confuse the public. That's politics.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-aaron/net-neutralitys-new-enemy_b_703709.html

Facebook Testing a “Stalker Button”

by  Jolie O'Dell

Facebook is apparently testing a new subscription feature that would allow users to receive alerts any time a specific friend takes certain actions on the social network.

AllFacebook reports that it has noticed the new feature popping up on friends’ profiles. Facebook told the blog, “This feature is being tested with a small percent of users. It lets people subscribe to friends and pages to receive notifications whenever the person they’ve subscribed to updates their status or posts new content (photos, videos, links or notes).”

http://mashable.com/2010/09/02/facebook-subscribe/

Twitter tightens grip on own firehose

Microbloggy thing tracks all links clicked

By Cade Metz

Posted in Music and Media, 2nd September 2010 19:18 GMT

Twitter is on a mission to regain control of its own firehose.

On Wednesday evening, the ballyhooed microblogging operation struck not one but two blows against third parties hoping to feed off its endless stream of self-serving mini-messages: The company said it's moving all users to its own url shortening service, and it took the wraps off its own iPad application.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/02/twitter_ipad_app_and_url_shortener/

Microsoft Patents Operating System Shutdown

By Wolfgang Gruener

Microsoft just received confirmation of a patent that hands the company the intellectual property of shutting an operating system down.

I can’t quite recall how often Microsoft has talked about a faster way to shut down its operating system. It is part of the pitch of virtually every new operating system and it has remained an annoyance that it can take quite some time until the software in fact closes running applications and the operating system itself.

http://www.conceivablytech.com/2530/products/microsoft-patents-operating-system-shutdown/

Scam Artists Use HADOPI to Steal Users Money

Written by Drew Wilson

News has surfaced that warning letters, allegedly from HADOPI, are being sent to an untold number of French citizens who are accused of copyright infringement. The problem? Neither HADOPI nor rights holders actually sent those e-mails.

It seems that HADOPI can’t catch a break. After a series of revelations ranging from questions over where the money is going to come from to being unable to wrestle with security questions to questions about the HADOPI trademark to name a few.

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/90531/scam-artists-use-hadopi-to-steal-users-money/

5 Reasons Why Apple TV Is (Still) Boring

By Eliot Van Buskirk

We know — the new Apple TV is really small, and it finally focuses on renting rather than purchasing television shows, integrates iOS devices as remote controls, has an optical audio output for surround sound, and costs just a hundred bones.

But it has 

1. Paltry Selection of TV Shows

2. No iOS

3. No HD Antenna

4. No 1080p

5. No replacement for BitTorrent

Adam Philbin, in a widely echoed tweet offering speculation about this device’s target market, put it like this: “Apple TV … it’s like a shit, single-purpose Mac Mini for people who don’t know what BitTorrent is.”

Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/5-reasons-apple-tv-is-still-boring/all/1#ixzz0yPrr4ER5