Internet Archive

EFF To Aid Users in Retrieving MegaUpload Data

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-01 Internet 9 Comments

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation, supported by Carpathia Hosting, today announced its plans to assess the scope of the issue facing Megaupload users who are at risk of losing their data. Carpathia has created this website to assist users in contacting EFF. EFF will review the factual situations shared by users and, if possible, try to resolve their issues." I <3 EFF. Seriously. These guys are universally fighting the good fight.

Submitted by kragil 2012-01-26 Internet 27 Comments

I promise we'll have more on ACTA next week, but for now, I'm too busy to properly cover the subject. In any case, the European Commission signed it today, but that means little - each individual member state's parliament still has to ratify it, and if one votes against it, it's over. The European Parliament has to accept it too - not a done deal either. My opinion on the matter is clear.

Submitted by twitterfire 2012-01-25 Internet 12 Comments

"Google's efforts to improve Internet efficiency through the development of the SPDY (pronounced 'speedy') protocol got a major boost today when the chairman of the HTTP Working Group (HTTPbis), Mark Nottingham, called for it to be included in the HTTP 2.0 standard. SPDY is a protocol that's already used to a certain degree online; formal incorporation into the next-generation standard would improve its chances of being generally adopted."

Guest post by snydeq 2012-01-25 Internet 7 Comments

InfoWorld's Serdar Yegulalp takes an in-depth look at six Chromium-based spinoffs that bring privacy, security, social networking, and other interesting twists to Google's Chrome browser. 'When is it worth ditching Chrome for a Chromium-based remix? Some of the spinoffs are little better than novelties. Some have good ideas implemented in an iffy way. But a few point toward some genuinely new directions for both Chrome and other browsers.'

Submitted by DrillSgt 2012-01-20 Internet 51 Comments

Supposedly we've won today. Both the PROTECT-IP Act in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House of Representatives have been shelved by their respective sponsors. However, these acts have been shelved before, and the bags of money sent to DC didn't suddenly devalue, so I'm sure the next SOPA is being written as we speak. What did make me happy, though, was Neelie Kroes: the EU commissioner for the digital agenda has unambiguously distanced herself from SOPA, which she calls "bad legislation". Obama, the next time you want to make a statement with teeth, just wait for Kroes to do it for you.

SOPA Not Shelved, Hearings To Continue in February

Thom Holwerda 2012-01-17 Internet 10 Comments

Well, well, well, well. Just like I, and many others with me, have said: SOPA is most certainly not dead. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith has just pushed out a press release stating that the House debate on SOPA will continue in February, 'unshelving' SOPA only a few days after it was supposedly shelved.

SOPA Shelved, Wikipedia Joins Blackout Anyway

Thom Holwerda 2012-01-16 Internet 45 Comments

Big news from Capitol Hill in Washington DC today: House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa has said that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been "shelved" in the House of Representatives, meaning it has been put on indefinite hold until a consensus about the act can be reached. Sadly, SOPA's counterpart in the Senate, the Protect IP Act (PIPA) will still be pushed forward, meaning we must remain vigilant. Despite all of this, Wikipedia has announced it will join the blackout coming Wednesday.

White House Uses 838 Words to Say Nothing About SOPA

Thom Holwerda 2012-01-14 Internet 30 Comments

The Obama administration has responded to two petitions regarding SOPA, but in true political fashion, the response is 838 words of absolutely nothing at all. Here's a link, but don't complain to me about losing 10 minutes of your life reading this empty drivel. How about taking a stand for once, eh?

Guest post by snydeq 2012-01-05 Internet 36 Comments

With financial backing from the likes of Michael Dell and other venture capitalists, open source upstart Nginx has edged out Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server) to hold the title of second-most widely used Web server among all active websites. What's more, according to Netcraft's January 2012 Web Server Survey, Nginx over the past month has gained market share among all websites, whereas competitors Apache, Microsoft, and Google each lost share.

Google, Facebook, Amazon May Go Black in SOPA Protest

Thom Holwerda 2012-01-04 Internet 28 Comments

So, this one slipped by completely undetected late last year (no, I don't grow tired of saying that). CNet reported that Google, Amazon, Facebook, and similarly large, anti-SOPA companies are mulling over the option of taking their websites off the air to replace them with an anti-SOPA message, asking users to contact their elected officials.

Facing Boycott, GoDaddy Rescinds SOPA Support

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-23 Internet 47 Comments

Yesterday, it was revealed GoDaddy actively supported SOPA - to the point of arrogance and dedain towards those opposing the US censorship law. As a result, a boycott was instated on reddit, which was picked up all over the web. Today, the company rescinded its support for SOPA - but for some high-profile clients, it's too late. Behold, the power of the internet.

Clueless EU Politicians Sign ACTA

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-16 Internet 30 Comments

It was fun while it lasted. This internet thing became too powerful, and shifted the balance of power too much to the people. Politicians found a partner in the content industry, and here we have it. After a mysterious unexplained 180 by a Dutch political party, ACTA has been signed by all 27 members of the EU. In the meantime, it's looking like SOPA, despite delays, is going to make it through, despite fierce opposition from the technology industry (except Apple and Microsoft, who don't care about a free and open web) and the very architects of the internet. To top it all off, UMG apparently has complete control over YouTube's content, allowing them to remove any video they don't like without even having to invoke the DMCA.

Submitted by fran 2011-12-14 Internet 54 Comments

PHP's popularity and simplicity made it easy for the company's developers to quickly build new features. But PHP's (lack of) performance makes scaling Facebook's site to handle hundreds of billions of page views a month problematic, so Facebook has made big investments in making it leaner and faster. The latest product of those efforts is the HipHop VM (HHVM), a PHP virtual machine that significantly boosts performance of dynamic pages . And Facebook is sharing it with the world as open-source.

Submitted by lucas_maximus 2011-12-11 Internet 25 Comments

Google Chrome offers more protection against online attacks than any other mainstream browser, according to an evaluation that compares exploit mitigations, malicious link detection, and other safety features offered in Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.

Apple Using Patents to Undermine Open Standards Again

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-09 Internet 51 Comments

Think companies only use patents to block competition? Heck no, they apparently also use them to hinder the w3c standards process. As Opera's Haavard details, Apple is yet again using patents (or even just patent applications) to hinder or block the development of open standards. Sickening.

Clinton Urges Countries Not to Stifle Online Voices

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-09 Internet 16 Comments

"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other international leaders urged countries and private businesses on Thursday to fight increasing efforts to restrict access to the Internet by repressive governments and even some democratic ones. Opening a two-day conference on digital freedom here sponsored by Google and the Dutch government, Mrs. Clinton warned that restrictions on the Internet threatened not only basic freedoms and human rights, but also international commerce and the free flow of information that increasingly makes it possible." Uhm, Mrs. Clinton... SOPA...?

Guest post by ddc_ 2011-12-05 Internet 23 Comments

There are a lot of browsers these days, some being bloated with features, others serving the bare minimum of web browsing tasks. Marco Peerboom began developing his minimalist web browser xxxterm for OpenBSD in 2010. Within a year the browser became popular enough in the OpenBSD community to find its ways to major Linux repositories. And here's why.

Readability on News Websites

Thom Holwerda 2011-11-23 Internet 24 Comments

It's a somewhat uneasy subject among websites such as OSNews - advertisements, the site's readability, and how to get a little more income without compromising the pleasure of using the site. Brent Simmons published a blog post about the topic which has been making its rounds across the web. The gist: websites, save for a precious few, seem to be getting progressively worse.

U.S. Senate to Vote on Net Neutrality

jackson 2011-11-08 Internet 16 Comments

According to Wired, "The Senate is likely to vote within days on a measure that would undo net-neutrality rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 2010, even though they've yet to go into effect... The House passed a similar measure, but Obama has threatened to veto it. It was not immediately clear whether the Senate has the necessary votes for passage."If you care about net neutrality, now is a good time to head on over to Save The Internet and get involved in this issue.

Netflix Downloads Hog Internet Bandwidth

jackson 2011-11-03 Internet 9 Comments

A new report confirms what you might have guessed. Netflix downloads hog nearly one third of the internet's bandwidth. "Netflix consumes 32.7 percent of the Internet's peak downstream traffic in North America, and ... continues to be the most powerful driver of evening traffic, and for that matter, of daily traffic overall." The report continues: "...despite some negative subscriber reaction to price hikes, Netflix has continued to increase its presence by adding 1 million U.S. subscribers since the Spring 2011 report, and by many measures Netflix rules North America's fixed access networks."

Internet Archive

EFF To Aid Users in Retrieving MegaUpload Data

European Commission Signs ACTA

Google’s SPDY To Be Incorporated Into HTTP 2.0

Chromium-Based Remixes Worth Trying

SOPA, PIPA Shelved, Internet’s Defeat Postponed