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Friday, April 5, 2002
• Buddy
and Jerry think alike
First Buddy Cianci, now Jerry Falwell. The Moral Majority
founder is taking issue with a Web site that uses his name as a URL. JerryFalwell.com
satirizes Falwell's version of Christianity and uses an animated photo
to show him sticking his foot in his mouth. Falwell claims the site violates
a trademark of his name. He has filed a complaint with the World Intellectual
Property Organization.
According to an Associated
Press report on the dispute, site owner Gary
Cohn of Highland Park, Ill., claims Falwell's name isn't entitled to trademark
protection since he hasn't used it ``to identify certain goods and services.''
Cianci, meanwhile, has agreed
to return the domain names he bought using the names of several Providence
media figures he calls "real journalists," but he's holding
onto the one using the name of radio-talk show host John DePetro. Cianci
bought the domain names after learning a South County businessman is using
www.buddycianci.com
as a forum to criticize the indicted mayor and call for his resignation.
Cianci has threatened legal action against the operator of the site.
By the way, the Buddy
story also has made AP's national tech wire.
• No
more all-nighters
Oh, what I would have given to have had the Net around
when I was in college at the dawn of the PC era. Easy access to a nearly
endless supply of research materials. Think about how impressed all my
profs would have been.
Then again, maybe it's best I had no idea what copy and
paste meant. CNET
News.com reports teachers are turning to new software tools to root
out plagiarists who pass off the work of others as their own. One of the
company's cited, WordCHECK,
sells a basic version of its software for just $95.
Another Net benefit: How else would we ever hear
about stories
like this one?
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Thursday, April 4, 2002
• Net
government
It appears "e-government" is more than just
a buzz word. A study
out today from the Pew
Internet and American Life Project indicates Americans are turning
to the Web more often when in need of government information. As of January,
68 million adults had visited a government Web site, up from 40 million
in March 2000, according to an Associated
Press report on the study. The top three reasons for visiting a government
site: Tourism and recreation information, research for work or school
and download government forms. The New York Times also has
a story on the report.
• Filtering
arguments
The trial over an American
Library Association challenge to a law requiring libraries to install
filtering software on Internet-connected computers if they wish to receive
federal funds is drawing to an end. Closing arguments are scheduled for
tomorrow, and a decision by the panel of judges hearing the case is expected
by summer, according to Wired.com.
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Wednesday, April 3, 2002
• Nixon
on the Net
Political junkies and history buffs should visit CSPAN.org's
American Political
Archives. The public affairs network is making available online 500
hours of the
Nixon White House tapes released by the National
Archives and Records Administration in February. Armed with a media
player, Web users can hear Nixon discuss the attempted assassination of
former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, orders to bomb North Vietnamese ports
and the aftermath of his trip to China. This is but one more example of
the Net's benefits.
• The
"so-what" factor
Hard to believe -- at least for me -- but most Americans
apparently have little interest in high-speed Net connections at home.
Just 7 percent of American households subscribe to broadband connections,
according to a
report on Washtech.com. Lisa Pierce of the Giga
Group attributes the weak demand for broadband to the "so-what"
factor. "She says consumers generally use the Internet for text e-mail
messages, which gain little from higher-speed service," according
to Washtech.com.
In my home, we're stuck in the Net's breakdown lane, but
that's not by choice. I'm ready to fork over $40 to $50 a month to the
first company that can deliver high-speed access to my door, but the area
phone and cable
companies apparently don't want my money. Maybe I should hold an eBay
auction for the exclusive high-speed rights to my home. Can't hurt.
• Yahoo
users beware
Registered users of Yahoo should be aware of a change
in company policy that exposes them to spam, junk mail and unwanted marketing
calls, according
to The Register. Yahoo changed its privacy policy and reset users'
preferences with regard to being contacted by third parties. To avoid
being bombarded, Yahoo users should change their preferences at
this page.
According to The Register, I should have received an e-mail
at home warning me of this change, but I don't recall getting one. You
can be sure I'll double check.
San Jose Mercury News tech columnist Dan
Gilmor calls it a "tricky move."
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Tuesday, April 2, 2002
• Opening
Day jitters
It appears that the Sox' Pedro Martinez was not the only
one shelled on Opening Day. Major League Baseball's
MLB.com experienced a traffic surge that apparently left some fans
unable to listen to its online audio broadcasts. CNET
News.com reports an MLB.com spokesman attributed the heavy traffic
to the ongoing dispute between the New York Yankee's YES network and cable
company Cablevision Systems that has left some fans unable to watch the
Yankees.
• Savvy
cities
Yahoo! Internet Life magazine has issued its annual ranking
of the most Internet-savvy cities, and San Francisco, San Jose, Calif.,
and Austin, Texas, continue to hold the top three spots, according to
the Associated
Press. Boston, ranked 16th last year, jumped to fourth, thanks, in
part, to a glowing review of the city's Web site, cityofboston.gov.
I checked the magazine's online version to see if Providence was ranked
at all, but there was no mention of it in the report that is scheduled
to appear in the magazine's May edition.
• Fooled
again?
More than usual, Web users had to read with a skeptical
eye on April Fool's Day yesterday. Cyberjournalist.net
did its part to warn the unsuspecting by collecting in one place a number
of the online news hoaxes. Some of the April Fool's stories that made
the news yesterday include a Napster
bid to buy Microsoft, the PigeonRank
technology behind Google and Jesse
Ventura's re-election plans.
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Monday, April 1, 2002
• Debating Web boredom
Salon.com managing editor Scott Rosenberg offers a
good response to a New York Times story
last week (registration required) claiming the Web is not as much
fun as it used to be. Arguing humor and fun continue to thrive on the
Web, Rosenberg points to Google's list of Britney
Spears misspellings cited here last week and a
strange-looking PC manufactured in Switzerland.
• Foul language and dirty pictures in the courtroom
It sounds like the American Library Association's challenge
to a federal law requiring libraries to install porn-blocking software
on their computers is making for an interesting trial down in Philadelphia.
The Associated
Press reports the language is worse than anything George Carlin ever
used. Just imagine lawyers debating the definition of "fetish."
• Digital libraries
Here's another
story on the important role libraries are playing in the Internet
age. CNET News.com reports start-up Ebrary
will announce the details of an experiment that would allow users in six
regional library systems to read books and articles for free online, but
charges them to copy or print text. The New England partner in the experiment
will be Nelinet,
which counts a number of Rhode Island libraries among its members.
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