1 in 7 humans will be on Facebook by August

1 in 7 humans will be on Facebook by August By Craig Johnson updated 4:41 PM EST, Fri January 13, 2012 NEED TO KNOW Study says growth to come from internatonal users Social networking site debuts new 'Listen With' button One billion served. This isn’t about McDonalds: That's the number of members Facebook is projected to reach in August, a new study says. Since its 2004 launch, the social networking site has rolled out numerous changes, including a Timeline feature in December and a brand new “Listen With” buttonThursday, and its usage continues to climb. Currently the site has more than 800,000,000 members, according...

Read more »

Kodak attempting to avoid looming bankruptcy

Faced with the possibility of filing Chapter 11 in the coming weeks, 131-year-old Kodak is looking to sell of a handful of patents to keep the company afloat for a longer period of time. As reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier today, Eastman Kodak may have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if company officials aren’t successful in selling off 1,100 patents over the next few weeks. While the company would continue to operate during the bankruptcy procedure, Kodak would be forced to sell the patents during a court-supervised bankruptcy auction and wouldn’t get the full value for the patents. The company...

Read more »

Posted in: attempting,avoid,bankruptcy,Kodak,looming

Samsung says no to Galaxy S/Galaxy Tab Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade

Samsung has decided not to pursue adapting Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the Galaxy S or Galaxy Tab, saying they're optimized for the previous version of the software, 2.3 Gingerbread. Brace yourselves, Galaxy S owners, as we’ve got some bad news. Samsung has decided it can’t integrate its own software with the latest version of Android, meaning your phone will remain a Gingerbread device. This news comes after the company announced its ICS upgrade schedule before Christmas, where the Galaxy S and the Galaxy Tab 7-inch tablet were notable in their absence. However, Samsung was forced into “re-evaluating” the Galaxy S and the Galaxy...

Read more »

Posted in: Cream,Galaxy,Samsung,Sandwich,SGalaxy,upgrade

In Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V we trust: File sharing made an official Swedish religion

File sharing becomes a religion in Sweden with the official recognition of the Church of Kopimism. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V we trusteth. And lo’ they shared the files, and ’twas good. Anti-piracy efforts may soon be labeled as religious persecution as the Swedish government has apparently recognized file sharing as an official religion. Meet Philosophy student Isak Gerson, who is the mind behind the Church of Kopimism. Gerson founded the Missionary Church of Kopimism in 2010, and filed a request with authorities to officially accept his belief system in order for Kopimism to avoid persecution. It took three request over the past year to finally...

Read more »

Posted in: CtrlC,CtrlV,official,religion,sharing,Swedish,trust

PayPal strikes again, and this time an antique violin pays the ultimate price

The bewilderingly aggressive service branch of PayPal has again drawn the ire of many, as the company demanded that a pre-World War II antique violin, valued at $2,500, be destroyed in order to issue the disputer a refund. It hasn’t been a particularly good few weeks for the customer service industry. Last week it was the saga of Paul Christoforo, the man who would be friends with the mayor of Boston, bro, who decided that civility was for the weak and paid a hefty price when he picked on the wrong guy. Now it is PayPal. Again. PayPal is one of those services that has so dominated the space it exists in that it has inevitably become...

Read more »

Posted in: again,antique,PayPal,price,strikes,ultimate,violin

Sick of PayPal? Check out these alternatives

If you've had it up to here with the online commerce platform de facto, maybe it's time to take your money elsewhere on the Internet. PayPal  has long been a tent pole of e-commerce, a service integrated into nearly every online shopping experience. But that doesn’t mean it’s above the ire of the Internet. Lately something’s been amiss over at the site, and now complaints of shoddy customer service and poorly worded user policies are coming back to haunt it. First, in true holiday spirit, PayPal froze Regretsy’s charity campaign and a company representative dealt with the situation poorly (the phrase “You can use the donate button...

Read more »

Posted in: alternatives,Check,PayPal,these

Netflix members watched 2 billion hours of video in Q4 2011

Netflix has proudly revealed that its customers watched roughly 10 times the amount of video content each month than users watch on Hulu. Netflix may be down, but it’s not out. The streaming and DVD rental company announced today that its more than 20 million members worldwide watched a combined total of more than 2 billion hours of television and movies during the last three months of 2011. This equals out to an average of about 33 hours of video watching per month for each user — which isn’t hard to imagine considering the increasingly popular practice of watching entire seasons, or multiple seasons, of shows all in one sitting. According...

Read more »

Posted in: billion,hours,members,Netflix,video,watched

Why 2012 is starting to look like 1984

Between SOPA, NDAA, telecommunications surveillance, and people's willingness to share endlessly via social networking, will 2012 mark the year consumers irreversibly surrender their privacy and freedoms? A mantra of the Internet age, articulated in 1984 by WELL founder Stewart Brand, is that “information wants to be free.” Back then — the days of 360K floppies and 1200 baud modems — Brand was referring to digital technology making information ever easier to distribute, copy, and remix than their old-school analog counterparts. The oft-forgotten corollary Brand offered at the same time was “Information also wants to be expensive,” because...

Read more »

Posted in: starting

Google exec comments on the sponsored Chrome campaign and the finger pointing continues

The involved parties all weigh in on the Chrome advertising debacle, including Googler Matt Cutts. Earlier this week, Google came under fire for a pay-per-post campaign promoting its Chrome browser. In addition to being hypocritical (Google has made a lot of noise about punishing this type of spammy, page boosting, “thin” content), one sponsored blog post in particular failed to follow Google’s “nofollow” hyperlinking rule. Google dutifully dropped Chrome’s page rank for the next 60 days and in a company statement explained that given its position, the company needs to hold itself to a higher standard. Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam...

Read more »

Posted in: campaign,Chrome,comments,continues,finger,Google,pointing,sponsored

How to Check and Fix Your Problematic Hard Drive [Windows 7]

There are many things that your computer depends on to function normally. For the computer to function at all, you need the big five: power supply, motherboard, RAM, hard drive, and CPU. Of the five, the hard drive contains the most important stuff required for you to use the computer – the operating system. When that component acts up, all sorts of funny things start happening. What Happens? If your hard drive starts acting nasty, you’ll know it because the computer loads much more slowly than usual, perhaps executing this behavior on one or two programs in particular. BSOD (blue screen) errors will happen more frequently than previously...

Read more »

Posted in: Check,Drive,Problematic,Windows

Watch Continuous Videos On YouTube With NowBox [iPad]

Watch Continuous Videos On YouTube With NowBox [iPad] By Laura Tucker | January 2, 2012 | Leave a Comment GA_googleFillSlot("MTE_beforeContent_606x300"); Ever wish you could just watch YouTube videos continuously without the constant searching in between each find, good or bad? NowBox for iPad makes it all possible. Sure, within YouTube itself you can save your favorite videos to a playlist to watch in a constant stream, but what about videos that are new to you? Every time you search for a video, YouTube always displays a list of others it thinks you might like. It allows you to go off on several different tangents as you can...

Read more »

Posted in: Continuous,NowBox,Videos,Watch,YouTube

How To Setup, Connect, and Accept Remote Desktop Connections In Windows 7

  Microsoft Remote Desktop Manager for Windows 7 allows you to connect to any computers in your network. This allows access to files, documents and Network resources on each PC as though you were sitting directly in front of it, regardless of the location. Begin by allowing access to the workstation. If your OS doesn’t have it already installed, the Standard Edition is free and can be downloaded quickly. It has all the main features most people would need to connect to a remote computer. If you need something more heavy-duty, there is a paid Enterprise version for connection needs such as VPN. Here is a walk through of how...

Read more »

Posted in: Accept,Connect,Connections,Desktop,Remote,Setup,Windows

Another Candidate Campaigning Against SOPA Supporter: Jack Arnold

On Friday we posted about Karen Kwiatkowski running for Congress against Rep. Bob Goodlatte in Virginia using SOPA as a key campaign point. With Goodlatte being one of the key supporters of SOPA this makes a lot of sense. Soon after we posted that, we heard from Jack Arnold (and from his campaign, separately), noting that he's running against Rep. Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee and is also using SOPA as a key campaign issue. His "common sense" writeup about SOPA is absolutely worth reading. Here's a snippet: As SOPA is drafted at present, no thinking person could possibly support it. It would give unheard-of censorship power to the Department of Justice and would have numerous foreseeable negative consequences. For example, it would cripple the internet as it exists today and would remove...

Read more »

Posted in: Against,Another,Arnold,Campaigning,Candidate,Supporter

Hackers Figuring Out How To Set Up Satellites To Route Around Internet Censorship

It's been pointed out over and over again that censoring the internet is no way to deal with things like copyright infringement -- and that people will always figure out ways to route around such censorship. That's why it's interesting to hear that some folks at the famed Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin last week outlined some plans to set up their own satellite system for routing around internet censorship around the globe. And... a key reason given for why this is needed? SOPA, of course: He cited the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) in the United States as an example of the kind of threat facing online freedom. If passed, the act would allow for some sites to be blocked on copyright grounds. They're obviously a long way from this, but the ability of amateurs to build and launch...

Read more »

Posted in: Around,Censorship,Figuring,Hackers,Internet,Route,Satellites

No, Sony Electronics, Nintendo And EA Have NOT Publicly Changed Their Position On SOPA

Overhype by Mike Masnick Tue, Jan 3rd 2012 7:42am It's amazing how a little bad reporting turns into a big story. Late last week, we saw a report on Business Insider, by Matt Lynley, claiming that Nintendo, EA and Sony Electronics had dropped... Filed Under: pipa, protect ip, sopa, supporters Companies: ea, nintendo, sony electronics Permalink. It's amazing how a little bad reporting turns into a big story. Late last week, we saw a report on Business Insider, by Matt Lynley, claiming that Nintendo, EA and Sony Electronics had dropped support of SOPA. However, the reporting on this story is highly questionable. It was based on a report from...

Read more »

Posted in: Changed,Electronics,Nintendo,Position,Publicly,Their