Net Neutrality

save the internet

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License Launched

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses — Version 3.0 — are now available. Read more here. Via: /. & BoingBoing.

Professor Lawrence “RW” Lessig’s “The Withering of the Net”

Professor Lawrence “RW” Lessig’s “The Withering of the Net”

On June 16, 2006, Professor Lawrence Lessig gave a talk at the Center for American Progress entitled “The Withering of the Net: How DC Pathologies are Undermining the Growth and Wealth of the Net.” This talk was the second in a series of three. The first talk [...]

China Announces Massive Online ID Database

Via SlashDot:

China provides access to ID database to curb fraud

Anyone can now send a text message or visit the country’s population information center’s website, to check if the name and the ID number of a person’s identity card match. If they do match the ID cardholder’s picture also appears, said the Ministry, adding [...]

Video: John Edwards Feeling Pretty

This is just too funny…

Hattip: RogerRmjet

Web 2.0: Explained in just under 5 minutes

Web 2.0 Explained … in just under 5 minutes.

Hattip: BoingBoing by way of Wonderland

Birthday Message Takes the Cake

Happy ERROR to you
It seems that you can email an order to Wegman’s bakery for cakes. Including the message you want on written your cake. The cake below was supposed to be a mix of English and Italian.

FTA:
This just takes the cake!

The email likely feeds directly into their computer that runs the food-grade equivalent [...]

Add Video From LiveVideo.com to Your WordPress.com Blog

You can embed videos from livevideo.com

Well that is very cool.
Now that GooTube (Google Video/YouTube) has begun performing Censorship on an industrial scale it’s nice to have a video alternative.
Here are the “How-To” instructions…

Add Dailymotion Video to Your WordPress.com Blog

There was a petition for WordPress.com to add DailyMotion support, and here it is.
video of a Stirling cycle model engine …

Embedding instructions are here, you can also post to your WordPress.com blog directly from the DailyMotion player by using their “blog this video” feature.
Very Nice

One quarter of all computers are internet zombies

What does this mean to you? That one in four of you are reading this on a computer that you think you own and control, but that is really an infected zombie (and Typhoid Mary) controlled by a black hat “Bot-Herder”.

Vint Cerf: one quarter of all computers part of a botnet

Cerf told his listeners that [...]

Google has finally defused the “Google Bomb”

Google has been making some changes lately.

Google Kills Bush’s Miserable Failure Search & Other Google Bombs.
After just over two years, Google has finally defused the “Google Bomb” that has returned US President George W. Bush at the top of its results in a search on miserable failure. The move wasn’t a post-State Of The [...]

Music companies consider ditching DRM

Interesting article in on the International Herald Tribune website…

Record labels rethink digital rights management at Midem

Now that even digital music revenue growth is faltering amid rampant file-sharing by consumers, the major record labels are closer than ever to releasing music on the Internet with no copying restrictions — a step they once vowed never to [...]

How to destroy your enemies with Web 2.0: A five step plan

A funny social hacking plan using Web 2.0 … courtesy of Vallywag
How to destroy your enemies with Web 2.0: A five-step plan

With the social tools at your disposal, you can propose to your girlfriend with a $25 ad spot or call your local pizza place to say hi. Sure, you can be friendly. But wouldn’t [...]

UNIQLO MIXPLAY

Click here to make your own UNIQLO MIXPLAY dance mix!

Turn your blog into a book, part II

Gina Trapani has posted Pat II of her Geek to Live instructional series:

Geek to Live: Turn your blog into a book, part II

Part I of How to turn your blog into a book covered the basics for blogging your book idea, getting an agent, and drafting your book proposal. Now you’ve got 300 pages due [...]

Turn your blog into a book

Part one of a multipart article at Lifehacker…

Geek to Live: Turn your blog into a book, part I

There’s a world of difference between being a blogger and a book author, but more writers are wearing both hats these days. It’s not surprising that pro writers are becoming bloggers, but “amateur” bloggers getting book deals are [...]

Is Web 2.0 Communism’s Crowning Glory?

Here is an excerpt from a interesting Op-Ed piece on Bit-Tech:
The People’s Republic of Web 2.0

Karl Marx is famous for thinking up a system where everyone had a voice, where everyone was equal, and then went on to associate it with a political system. I suppose you can’t blame old Karl for the [...]

Well, Snap!

Snap Preview Anywhere™ WordPress Beta is now featured on PoliTech.
What is Snap Preview Anywhere? Snap Preview Anywhere enables anyone visiting PoliTech to get a glimpse of what other sites we’re linking to, without having to leave our site. By rolling over any link, the user gets a visual preview of the site without having to [...]

Digg This: Talking to Gen Y

Digg.com CEO Jay Adelson’s tips for communicating with the younger generation in your workplace.

According to research compiled by RainmakerThinking and quoted in USA Today, Gen Y—the millennium generation—has high expectations for itself and its employers, seeking highly engaged managers to help them grow and develop their professional skills.
read The whole thing…
Hat Tip: digg
Image HatTip: [...]

And so it begins: YouTube nukes 30,000 videos

YouTube has removed nearly 30,000 videos after being contacted by the Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers.

And so it begins: YouTube nukes 30,000 videos
Long before Google swooped in to buy up YouTube there were questions about the video sharing site’s future. In particular, concerns relating to copyright infringement have persisted: can YouTube [...]

NES Games on Your Browser

Virtual NES…

Here, you can play NES Games in your browser.

Using Java Applet Technology. All you need is Java 1.5.0 or higher.

Before you begin, please make sure you understand the controls. The controller at top will always remain there, for reference. We are not affiliated with Nintendo in any way. This is an emulator. It was [...]

A 1st Blog From Space

Hi everyone,

It is about 11:30 GMT here on ISS. It looks like my first entry from space made it down there.. Amazing, isn’t it…?

So first let’s take care of a few housekeeping items… I do not have realtime access to email. The email process is a batch process so it happens three times a day. [...]

How to Cure your Blogging Addiction in 7 Easy Steps

What does it say about me that I just blogged about this article?

How to Cure your Blogging Addiction in 7 Easy Steps

Blogging has made a huge impact in many peoples lives over the past few years - just look at the Technorati numbers to see blogs in the tens of millions, from all corners of [...]

YouTube’s deal with Warner Music could be YouTube’s downfall.

A lot of bloggers, social site posters, and traditional webmasters are using youtube to display video and many feature youtube videos with great regularity, (including the PoliTech Blog!). The article below is definitely worth the read.

Feature: Why YouTube’s best deal will be its death

Today, YouTube announces that Warner Music will publish music videos (and some [...]

Digg: Democratic? Or Herd Behavior?

My vote is for “Herd Behavior”. Wikipedia describes “Information cascade” and the description strongly resembles what we see daily on Digg.com.
Information cascade is a phenomenon in social psychology in which the decisions of a few individuals have a disproportionally strong effect on the behavior of the group as a whole. Information cascade is commonly seen [...]

Microsoft YouTube Clone Coming

Since Google Video never really took off. And since YouTube is burning cash at a rate that is at this point insurmountable, and will be going down the drain shortly without a buyout or other cash infusion. I’m hoping that another alternative will show up soon. I like adding video to my blog. I like [...]

Free Appz: Save YouTube Video

Have you ever wanted to save YouTube videos? Here is a nice little FREE way to capture them and then play them back.
YouTube to iPod
There have been several programs promise to grab Youtube videos,convert and import them into iTunes but then pull a fast one and ask you to pay for a license. iTube and [...]

PoliTech Changes

You may have noticed some changes going on around here.
First, The new PoliTech look. I like it but I need some input. So if you visit, make a comment and let me know what you think.
Second, Digg … I am not posting Digg links any longer. If you want to know why, go to [...]

YouTube, Digg, MySpace: How much is a non-paying ‘user’ worth?

YouTube, Digg, MySpace: How much is a non-paying ‘user’ worth?
Kevin Rose questions the propriety of Jason Calacanis putting a price tag on the active contributors at Web 2.0 Social Web properties such as Digg and Netscape (See “Digg vs. Netscape, Kevin vs. Jason, Web 2.0 vs. commercial Internet”)

This cool image is from “Nonprofit & [...]