A hearing concerning proposed amendments to the widely-feared SOPA bill is going on right now. It’s being streamed on Keep The Web Open and you should take a listen; it’s almost as heartening as it isinfuriating. As you might expect, there’s a lot of back and forth, and it goes a little something like this: Representative1: SOPA is actually counterproductive, will encourage piracy, and severely hamper free speech. Representative2: Well I’m not a nerd, but I disagree. It’s kind of staggering how often the discussion turns to who the “nerds” are, whether or not they understand what they’re talking about. It’s also kind of staggering how often the representatives who assert that they aren’t nerds use this fact as a way to support their statement, backhandedly suggesting that the nerds are nerds and don’t really know how real things work. Like the Internet for instance. The Internet. And yes, they are literally saying “nerd.” A lot. The SOPA Hearing is Infuriating and You Should Listen |...

  Right now, the US Congress is debating a law that would give them the power to censor the world’s Internet — creating a blacklist that could target YouTube, WikiLeaks and even groups like Avaaz! Under the new law, the US could force Internet providers to block any website on suspicion of violating copyright or trademark legislation, or even failing to sufficiently police their users’ activities. And, because so much of the Internet’s hosts and hardware are located in the US, their blacklist would clamp down on the free web for all of us. The vote could happen any day now, but we can help stop this — champions in Congress want to preserve free speech and tell us that an international outcry would strengthen their hand. Let’s urgently raise our voices from every corner of the world and build an unprecedented global petition calling on US decision makers to reject the bill and stop Internet censorship. Sign now and then forward as widely as possible — our message will be delivered directly to key members of the US Congress ahead of the crucial vote. via Avaaz – Save the...

When you open up the site and click on an image of a blue lollipop, you’re prompted to allow Take This Lollipop to access your Facebook profile. This is standard stuff; for instance, if you want to use your Facebook profile to comment on a website—say, Slate—you agree to such access. But Take This Lollipop demonstrates exactly what you agree to when you hit “OK.” In a stunning display of interactivity, the site shows a creepy video, a couple of minutes long, showing a dirty, creepy man, his fingerstips caked with grime as he points his way to Facebook. There, he accesses … your profile. The site takes the information from your Facebook page and seamlessly weaves it into the video. You watch as the stalker looks at your photographs, your recent status updates, your list of friends. Then he pulls up Google Maps and finds directions to your home (geographic data contained in your profile). He hops into a car, your profile photograph taped to the dashboard. The scene ends as he gets out of the car, presumably to track down his target—you. As horror movies go, the plot’s pretty thin. But it’s still jolting to see yourself cast as the victim… Take This Lollipop: creepy site offers warning about giving away personal info on Facebook. I totally love this! It’s by the creator of my favorite holiday website Elf Yourself. It’s also timely in that it brings awareness to the type of permissions you give websites when you authorize applications. As I’ve said before, the Internet was not made for you, but was made to push the agenda of website creators. Take note of that and pay attention to the websites you visit and the terms you agree to! I also love...

ACTA is one more offensive against the sharing of culture on the Internet. ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is an agreement secretly negotiated by a small “club” of like-minded countries (39 countries, including the 27 of the European Union, the United States, Japan, etc). Negotiated instead of being democratically debated, ACTA bypasses parliaments and international organizations to dictate a repressive logic dictated by the entertainment industries. ACTA would impose new criminal sanctions forcing Internet actors to monitor and censor online communications. It is thus a major threat to freedom of expression online and creates legal uncertainty for Internet companies. In the name of trademarks and patents, it would also hamper access to generic medicines in poor countries. Learn...

“Female version of designer/developer: Hair in ponytail, half-dressed in pajama bottoms & t-shirt, coffee cup with two sips of cold coffee left in the bottom, crossed eyes from focusing on two screens at the same time, alarm clock to remind her to eat, sleep & pay attention to family. Second alarm clock for when first alarm clock is ignored. Dark chocolate bars within arms reach at all times. Frequently says ‘Just let me transfer this one file real quick’…” This is so true. Something else these people have in common…a lack of social skills and a moderate to extreme sense of self importance. As someone who sits between the two extremes with a slight leaning toward designer, but only slightly, I can speak to this. The Internet creation crew are people who spend their entire lives in front of computers and face to face communication makes us uncomfortable. We also know that our skills are quite rare in the grand scheme of skilled workers, and want people to appreciate us as someone more than that “computer nerd”… To the topic though, I would say if you wish to hire someone to create a website for your organization or business, I would go after a Web Designer vs. a Web Developer. With “frameworks” like WordPress and Joomla, designers can quickly customize something for you based on your brand…and can even help you come up with one if you don’t have something yet. Best of all, they will hand the site over to you to update at your leisure as those frameworks were designed to be maintained by the technology unsavvy. One payment and you’re done! Web developers, on the other hand, are more concerned with how something works than with how it looks. Most don’t have a...

Let’s address this up front: Gizmodo and Steve Jobs had, at best, a tumultuous relationship. Yet no matter how much he may have hated us, we admired him. No, that’s not quite right. We loved him. He was the reason many of us got into this industry, or even care about technology at all. He made the computer personal, and the smartphone fun. Bill Gates may have put a computer on every office desk, but it was Steve Jobs who put one in every dorm room and bedroom and living room. And then, years later, he repeated the trick, putting one in every bag and every pocket, thanks to the iPad and iPhone. If you use a computer or smartphone today, it is either one he created, or an imitation of his genius… Steve Jobs Is Dead. No matter what, he was a Titan for...