Death of the Internet? Run-amok legislation could kill the Web.
Washington legislators may have finally lost their minds. Two bills winding their way through Congress — the House’s “Stop Online Piracy Act” (aka, SOPA) and the Senate’s “Protect IP Act of 2011″ (aka, Protect IP) — could gut the very foundation of the Internet.
But don’t just take my word for it. The same conclusion is represented by three distinguished law professors from Stanford, Elon, and Temple universities in their jointly published essay, “Don’t Break the Internet.”
Here are a couple of snippets from the authors’ essay:
“The procedures outlined in both bills fail [a] fundamental constitutional test. Websites can be ‘completely removed from circulation’ — rendered unreachable by, and invisible to, Internet users in the United States and abroad — immediately upon application by the government, without any reasonable opportunity for the owner or operator of the website in question to be heard or to present evidence on his or her own behalf. This falls far short of what the Constitution requires before speech can be eliminated from public circulation.”
“As serious as these infirmities are, SOPA, the House’s bill, builds upon them, enlarges them, and makes them worse. Under SOPA, IP rights holders can proceed vigilante-style against allegedly offending sites, without any court hearing or any judicial intervention or oversight whatsoever.”
In the noise of all of the other political gyrations in Washington, legislation that could undermine the foundation of the Internet could squeak through. I urge you to review the entire legal analysis at this link. If you’re equally concerned, you may want to consider contacting your Congressional representatives.
Image courtesy Stanford Law Review.
“Carrier IQ is a piece of software installed on millions of mobile phones that logs everything their users do, from what websites they browse to what their text messages say.
NASA has introduced a plan to pay private aerospace companies $1.6 billion to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). A variety of new commercial aerospace companies are expected to compete for the job of providing “turnkey” launch, flight, return, maintenance, and ground-support operations.
Call me crazy, but I think it’s ridiculous that Microsoft charges $499.99 for its Office Professional 2010; that’s more than what I paid for the laptop that I’m using to write this post.
Over the last couple of months I’ve seen a flurry of doom ‘n’ gloom scenarios based on the nearing peak (in mid 2013) of the 11-year solar cycle. For instance, a little over a week ago I read in the International Business Times, “Severe Solar Storm to Create Global Chaos and Complete Darkness” followed a week later by “Severe Solar Storms Could Disrupt Earth This Decade.”
I caught a short piece the other day by Dr. Michael Welner, forensic psychologist. He said (paraphrasing) that the 1938 radio broadcast of “War of the Worlds” could be considered the first mass-media manipulation of the public. Interesting perspective.
Beginning on January 12, 2012, the door will open to essentially unlimited variations of domain names. The current suite of 22 gTLDs (generic top-level domains, such as .com, .org, .net, .edu) will blossom to almost anything you can imagine.
(eMarketer) A digital revolution in couponing coupled with the belt-tightening of the recession have combined to make coupons cool among more than just those clipping the Sunday circular. Digital coupon usage is now firmly a part of the online shopping experience of millions of U.S. consumers.
(PCWorld) A Chinese global trade site is selling an item under the listing “Newest design crystal case for apple iPhone 5g,” which hints that the next generation iPhone… If the design of the case, made by Kulcase, LTD in Guangdong and offered for bulk orders on alibaba.com, is actually based on leaked plans from Apple, it appears the next iPhone could have a new edge-to-edge display and a new location for the rear flash. For the full article, visit
(Mashable) As of the end of 2010, more people get their news from the Internet than from newspapers – and more ad dollars went to online outlets than to newspapers, too.


(The Register) The Obama administration is launching an effort to reform the slow-motion train wreck that is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
(LA Times) “East Coast burger chain Five Guys is moving aggressively into Southern California. Some say that despite intense customer loyalty, In-N-Out should worry. The privately held chain, which has 770 locations in the U.S. and Canada, began moving into California two years ago with a handful of shops in Orange County and the Inland Empire. Now there are 27 locations in the state, but Five Guys has sold the rights to open 200 more in Southern California alone — nearly double the number operated here by In-N-Out. Next up is a Culver City location, set to open in mid-April. But to really make inroads here, Five Guys will have to get past a major hurdle: the intense loyalty of In-N-Out customers.” For the complete article, visit
Take a look at a list of some of the wackiest questions that employers asked job candidates during interviews. Questions like: “Explain quantum electrodynamics in two minutes, starting now.” “How many balloons would fit in this room?” “Using a scale of 1 to 10, rate yourself on how weird you are.” Imagine sitting in the hot seat trying to answer off-the-wall questions like these. For the full list of odd-ball questions, visit
Hagiu, Harvard Business Review) “Much is being written about the impact that new communication technologies and channels (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) have on traditional marketing. The deeper question is: Will these new communication channels actually force material changes not just in the way companies market their products but in the strategies and operations they use to develop and build those products as well? In my view, the answer is an emphatic yes. It’s another instance of the proverbial medium that changes the content.” To read Andrei’s intriguing article, follow this link:
Did you know that today’s cell phones have built-in GPS technology and track your every move to within a few feet? Every time you power up your phone, you’re tracked like a felon with an ankle bracelet. Your cell phone company collects all of that data and, under U.S. law, is not obligated to disclose what it knows about you and your travels. But a court case in Europe gives us some startling clues. German politician Malte Spitz went to court to learn what his cell phone company, Deutsche Telekom, knew about his travels. According to a NYT report 
(Harvard Business Review) “Optimism, grit, and specificity are just three of the qualities that fuel achievement. Harvard blogger Heidi Grant Halvorson explains that and more.” Check out this exceptional article at
Two years ago, my company and I created a 