“I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb. [...] It’s destroyed the music business. It’s going to destroy the movie business.” {cite}

Outside the club, ‘Cherry Bomb’
Our hearts were really thumpin’
Say, “Yeah yeah yeah”

We just laugh and say, “Do you remember when

That’s when a smoke was a smoke
And groovin’ was groovin’

http://www.mellencamp.com/

In short, Wired has published a jeremiad for the end of the freewheeling open Web, being rapidly supplanted by voracious wannabe monopolists who seek to dominate the networked world and reduce all of us to nothing more than predestined consumers of “content” served up by monolithic megabrands. You have to look carefully, but, after all mournful moping about the terrible things happening on the Web, Wired concludes that the Internet is young and still developing, so new things are right down the pike. More…

Wired: The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet >>

McAfee inside: How Intel bid could shake up IT security >>

Across much of Europe, consumers can choose among dozens of broadband providers, offering faster and less expensive Internet access than is available to most Americans. The situation is similar in Australia and in some advanced broadband markets in Asia, like Hong Kong and Singapore. Consumers who are unhappy with their broadband providers — if, for example, they suspect that their Internet use is not getting priority treatment — can simply switch.

In the United States, by contrast, many consumers can choose between only two broadband providers — one offering service over the phone lines, the other via cable. Others have no choice at all. U.S. regulators, unlike their counterparts elsewhere, have not generally required broadband providers to open their networks to competitors.

This fuels suspicions about the intentions of broadband providers, as well as the demands for network neutrality. More…

Reports emerged in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal Thursday night that Google and Verizon were close to reaching a deal that would let Verizon send certain online content more quickly to customers who pay more.

Google this morning denied the existence of such a deal.

“The New York Times is quite simply wrong,” a Google spokeswoman said in an e-mail. “We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google traffic. We remain as committed as we always have been to an open Internet.”

Verizon also denied it. MORE…
Google Denies Priority Internet Access Deal With Verizon |PCMag.com »

[ FCC Gives Up on Net Neutrality Talks ]

Josh Silver: Google-Verizon Deal: The End of The Internet as We Know It »

Google-Verizon Announce Proposal To Create Tiered Internet »
Read Details Of The Plan.. »
REACTION: Consumer Advocates Outraged »
Adam Green: Google Goes ‘Evil’.. »
FLASHBACK: Google Once Backed Net Neutrality.. »
WATCH: Obama Campaigned On Net Neutrality — Has He Lived Up To His Promise? »

——————————————————————————————————————

Bloggers HATE Google & Verizon’s net-neutrality proposal to FCC »

300,000 Americans have signed an open letter telling Google “don’t be evil” — protect Net Neutrality and the Internet’s level playing field. You can sign here.

Google defends net neutrality stance »
Search giant posts new blog entry debunking ‘myths’ about its net neutrality proposals announced earlier this week :: Google’s responds »

——————————————————————————————————————

      Heather Burns

This project ran to nearly £3 million pounds ($5 million dollars,) involved hundreds of people across numerous departments, ALEOs, and subcontractors, took over four years, and still produced a web site which fails in nearly every marketing, technical, administrative, and structural standard.

Heather Burns rants, “If you work in web design, web development, or web business, you must read the report and study it well.  There are dozens of lessons to be learnt as well as enough anecdotal howlers to leave your jaw embedded on the floor.” More…

Heather Burns: idea15webdesign

Visitors to almost every major website are tracked online, a Journal investigation has found. But there are ways to limit the snooping. Almost every major website you visit is tracking your online activity. Here’s a step-by-step guide to fending off trackers.

Web browsing activity is tracked by use of “cookies,” “beacons” — small computer files or software programs installed on a user’s computer by the Web pages that are visited. Some are useful. But a subset (”third party” cookies and beacons) are used by companies to track users from site to site and build a database of their online activities.

Major browsers including Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox, Google Inc.’s Chrome and Apple Inc.’s Safari, have privacy features. More …

VIDEO: An Introduction to Firefox’s Tab Candy

UC San Diego’s Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is launching a new volunteer internship program for high school students this summer to assist them in gaining experience in a particular area of computational research. More …