Category Archives: Internet

Egypt Is Back on the Internet

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Perilocity: Egypt Returns.

Posted in Internet, Politics: International | Comments Off on Egypt Is Back on the Internet

Egypt Cuts Internet Access & SMS

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Reports are coming in that Egypt is now under an Internet and SMS blackout, just hours before a new series of major protests are planned against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

Sebone, a major Egyptian service provider based in Italy, is reporting that no Internet traffic is entering or exiting the country as of 12:30 AM Egyptian time.

via Internet Access & SMS Blocked in Egypt as Protests Escalate. See also C.Net’s Reports: Internet disruptions hit Egypt.

At present, the US government only wants the power to monitor all communications, and to require intermediaries to store them for a couple of years in case law enforcement wants them later, not the power to pull a kill switch.  That, fortunately, could never happen here.

Nor, of course, could torture.

UPDATE: On Twitter follow the #jan25 and #jan28 hash tags for user reports.

Tech reports at BGPMon, Internet in Egypt offline and Renesys, Egypt Leaves the Internet.

Posted in Civil Liberties, Internet, Politics: International | 5 Comments

Is Academic Advantage a Scam?

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Is Academic Advantage a Scam? Opinions may differ. You be the judge (assisted by Boing Boing and Google).

If correctly reported, their lawyers’ actions certainly appear to leave much to be desired.

Boing Boing has been on the receiving end of one or two stupid legal threats in our day but this one from the firm of Lazar, Akiva & Yagoubzadeh takes the cake, the little cake topper, the frosting and all the candles, as well as the box and the cake-stand and the ornamental forks.

Note too this comment about that by Jonathan Zittrain, not to mention other fine comments over at Boing Boing.

Update (1/21): Seems Academic Advantage fired their lawyers. See Company Fires Law Firm Because of Firm’s Unfounded Legal Threat on Company’s Behalf.

Posted in Internet, Law: Ethics | 3 Comments

Any Reason to Let Silverlight Profile Me?

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

According to Microsoft’s Silverlight 4 Privacy Statement,

Disabling Silverlight Unique Client Identification

A registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Silverlight can be created with the Value Name EnableClientInformation with a Value Type of REG_DWORD and given a value of 0x00000000. This sets the machine to never provide the unique identifier associated with the Unique Client Identification feature to any Web site regardless of the DRM setting.

Any downside to this?

Posted in Internet | Comments Off on Any Reason to Let Silverlight Profile Me?

Attrapé

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Michael Froomkin

Yahoo Groupes (sic) is unhappy with me:

Votre navigateur n’accepte pas les cookies. Pour afficher cette page, vous devez modifier les préférences de votre navigateur pour qu’il accepte les cookies. (Code 0)

And it’s true too.

Somehow “Votre navigateur n’accepte pas les cookies” seems like amazing Franglais. This is why I wonder if I still speak French sometimes: The language has borrowed so much English that it has left me behind.

When I go to France, I sometimes wonder if people think I sound like someone speaking Edwardian English. If I could only convince myself the effect was Shakespearean …

[Original draft 1/15/10. As part of my blog redesign, I’ve been going through draft blog posts that somehow never made it to publication. This is one of them.]

Posted in Internet, Zombie Posts | 4 Comments

Comcast vs Level 3 Humor

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Michael Froomkin

People deeply embedded in the Comcast v. Level 3 slugfest over whether content providers should have to pay extra to reach customers will enjoy this xtranormal video: Comcast vs Level 3.

Posted in Econ & Money, Internet | Comments Off on Comcast vs Level 3 Humor