http://lauren.vortex.com/ en-us 2012-05-14T21:12:38-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000957.html A pair of Google-commissioned papers, one released just today, have triggered considerable controversy relating to ongoing antitrust investigations of Google by various regulators, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the European Commission. The first of these reports explores... Lauren 2012-05-14T21:12:38-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000956.html Quickly! How is President Obama's birth certificate like discussing Google privacy issues? Got it yet? Still thinking? Sorry, time's up! The answer is -- regardless of how logically and rationally you approach either of these topic areas -- there are... Lauren 2012-05-07T21:34:59-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000955.html You're probably familiar with the term "politically correct" and its ramifications. Simply stated, "political correctness" relates to the narrowing of discussions, often by focusing on specific examples of "violations" (in a range of circumstances) that in reality do not have... Lauren 2012-05-05T11:31:15-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000954.html X-Ethereal-From: Alphonse Gabriel Capone X-Date: Fri 4 May 2012 20:02 ZDT X-To: ICANN (Marina del Rey, California, U.S.A., Terra, DIM489Q94-0003) X-Subject: Congratulations on your great work! Gang, I know that this letter will come to you as something of a... Lauren 2012-05-04T21:29:06-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000953.html Author Arthur C. Clarke has been famously quoted as saying, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." His assertion may be arguably correct, but he neglected to make an important related stipulation. Was he referring to good magic or... Lauren 2012-05-01T14:37:08-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000952.html WASHINGTON (ZAP) -- It's been a bad week for Google. First, a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) report -- released in essentially unredacted form by the search giant itself -- accused the provider of free Internet services of inappropriately collecting fragmentary,... Lauren 2012-04-29T12:21:29-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000951.html In the wake of the 9/11 tragedies, the U.S. Congress rushed to quickly pass the ostensibly anti-terrorism PATRIOT Act. While we can reasonably view their motives as mostly virtuous at the time, over the years many observers have come to... Lauren 2012-04-27T13:02:17-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000950.html There's been a lot in the news today about the DNS Changer trojan, still likely affecting vast numbers of PCs and Macs. With the renewed push to remind users what's at stake, I wanted to very quickly provide a recap... Lauren 2012-04-23T20:36:58-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000949.html An interesting article appeared today in The New York Times, titled Don’t Be Evil, but Don’t Miss the Train. While I don't agree with everything in that piece, it does take an unusually nuanced view of complex situations involving Web... Lauren 2012-04-21T19:50:47-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000948.html Almost a year ago, in Why the Internet is the Most Important Thing in the World, I suggested that the Net had gained this status due to its massive and increasing role as the infrastructure for all manner of electronic... Lauren 2012-04-19T19:52:01-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000947.html The threat of "cyberattacks" is real enough. But associated risks have in many cases been vastly overblown, and not by accident of chance. The "cybersecurity" industry has become an increasingly bloated "money machine" for firms wishing to cash in on... Lauren 2012-04-14T12:01:05-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000946.html Ah yes. The Net is abuzz with the sound of a billion dollars (I'm refraining from the Dr. Evil references with great effort) landing in Instagram's lap, courtesy of Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook. And whatever the associated mix of cash and... Lauren 2012-04-12T19:36:57-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000945.html Sunday, 1 April 2012 MARINA DEL REY, California (ZAP) -- In a stunning and unexpected announcement, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced the immediate termination of its controversial and much criticized plan for a vast... Lauren 2012-04-01T09:16:51-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000944.html Last Saturday, as a followup to Why Google Needs an Ombudsman - Now More Than Ever, I posted my Google Issues and Problems Survey. Well over 1000 submissions have already been received, and after scanning through these rapidly, the trends... Lauren 2012-03-28T21:02:41-08:00 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000943.html Blog Update (March 28, 2012): "Frustrated": The Results of My "Google Issues and Problems Survey" To quote Jack Benny: "Wellll!" The reaction to my posting a couple of days ago -- Why Google Needs an Ombudsman - Now More Than... Lauren 2012-03-24T18:46:53-08:00