More ‘EU controlling blogging’ outrage – a more careful analysis
Back in June there was a lot of debate on numerous blogs about a draft European Parliament Resolution by Estonian Socialist Marianne Mikko. The original draft contained some rather strong paragraphs about placing legal restrictions on blogs but, after all, the initial draft – as I argued at the time – was probably the misguided view of one MEP, and that some MEPs had proposed sensible amendments.
British artist Alan Jaras turns light into awesome works of art. A majority of the works are analogue images of the refraction patterns from a beam of light passing through a transparent object (Jaras uses pieces of textured glass). VIA
Now Mikko has taken on board some of the amendments from MEPs in the Culture Commitee and a new draft has been produced, the version that will probably be the basis for a vote. Why is this any worse than what we had? Well, Daniel Hannan calls Mikko’s document the ‘full report’ – correct. But the document would still only be a resolution, it’s not a regulation or a directive. EU Referendum does not seem to understand that this document still will not have legal force – it’s the EP equivalent of an early day motion.
Can I sue Iain Dale?
Being labelled a left-wing blogger in Iain Dale’s latest unscientific guide to the world of British blogging is one thing (though something I was not alone in thinking was somewhat odd – check the comments below that list). Sometimes I do go a bit lefty – just as sometimes I go a bit right-wing (mostly economically, but still). A casual reader could be forgiven for getting the wrong impression.
But I’ve just had a gander at the full version (warning – PDF) – and he’s got me down as a Labour blogger.
Facebook is One of the Fastest Growing Search Engines
This article has been republished from the Social Times.
According to this July’s comscore data the fastest growing locations for search are Facebook and MySpace. MySpace had 539 million searches and Facebook had 173 million and posted 20 and 10 percent growth, respectively. My guess is that these searches are only domestic searches which would account for the large difference. Whatever the case is these numbers are far below Google’s search volume which fell just under 10 billion searches for the month with 4 percent monthly growth.
Sony Reader muscles into Kindle territory
The Sony Reader is muscling into Kindle territory, and early reports on the new player in the market are positive.
The Kindle is more expensive the Sony’s model and the Kindle does not have "format neutrality." The Kindle is unable to read formats like Acrobat PDF unlike its Sony rival, which can read virtually any format. However, the Sony Reader may not have always-on Internet connectivity, according to Gizmodo.
Infowar and Measuring Authenticity
I had an opportunity to share my observations about “citizen propaganda” in the Russia/Georgia conflict with someone far more knowledgeable than myself – Gregory Shvedov, the editor in chief of Caucasian Knot, a leading alternative news publication focused on the Caucuses, joined the fellows at the Berkman Center for a brief discussion yesterday. Shvedov has been following the conflict closely, both through the reports of journalists associated with Caucasian Knot who are on the ground in Georgia and Ossetia, and through the panoply of blog accounts that have accompanied the war.
Google adapts licensing of Chrome after copyright complaints
Google is dropping a section of the licensing agreement for the new Chrome browser after complaints.
Google reported yesterday that it is removing the section that gave the company, "a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through" the new browser.
Privacy Concerns Over Google Chrome’s "Omnibox"
From CNet:
<<The auto-suggest feature of Google’s new Chrome browser does more than just help users get where they are going. It will also give Google a wealth of information on what people are doing on the Internet besides searching.
Google Chrome Tips and Pointers
Chrome is Google’s newly released browser. It’s currently available for Windows only. Following are a couple of FAQ’s and bits of interest.
Google Chrome Receives Heavy Criticism in Germany
It doesn’t get any more “official” than this here. Yesterday, Saturday at around 20:07, Germany’s oldest and perhaps biggest prime time news Tagesschau announced the following under the headline “Warning against internet browser"*:
<<The Federal Office for Information Security warned internet users of the new browser Chrome. The application by the company Google should not be used for surfing the internet, as a spokesperson for the office told the Berliner Zeitung. It was said
to be problematic that Chrome was distributed as an unfinished advance version. Furthermore it was said to be risky that user data is hoarded with a single vendor. With its search engine, email program and the new browser, Google now covers all important areas on the internet.>>
Chrome Vs. IE 8
By samzenpus
Google Chrome, Day 2
By CmdrTaco
Effective use of Twitter and hashtags during Hurricane Gustav
Description:
As Hurricane Gustav threatened the New Orleans area last week, citizens found new ways to update the public on how things were developing on the ground. In an attempt to decrease some of the chaos that occurred during Hurricane Katrina, Twitter users from the region mobilized themselves to offer a way not only of quickly disseminating the information via tweets, but also to centralize the information via the use of hashtags.
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