The World According To Google. An interesting review that addresses issues including e-commerce, privacy, page ranking and the fact that the company may be “the world’s largest operator of a distributed computer network.” Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: May 2004
Interview With Data Mining Aggregator CEO
Excerpts from an AP interview with ChoicePoint Inc. (CPS) chairman Derek Smith. Continue Reading
News Aggregators Can Present Challenges to Bloggers
Will RSS Readers Clog the Web? Continue Reading
Usability Testing and the Design of a Live Reference Service
What words and where? Applying usability testing techniques to name a new live reference service, by Vicky Duncan and Darlene Fichter. Abstract: “A user-focused design approach was taken to develop a new ‘live reference’ service at the Health Sciences Library, University of Saskatchewan. The name of the service, the placement of the links, and the… Continue Reading
Report on U.S. Sponsored Net Filtering Program
“Unintended Risks and Consequences of Circumvention Technologies: The U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau’s (IBB) Anonymizer Service in Iran,” April 28, 2004. [Link] See also this related CNet article by Declan McCullagh. Continue Reading
Cmte. Request for Medicare Cost Data Denied
From the House Committee on Government Reform: “All 19 minority members of the Committee write Secretary Thompson to protest HHS’s obstruction of their investigation into the withholding of the [Medicare] cost data. The members officially expand their Seven Member request to include the communications between HHS and congressional leadership.” Letter to HHS, April 26, 2004… Continue Reading
Perspective on Google IPO
Is a Do-Gooder Company a Good Thing? Continue Reading
Piracy Surveillance, Copyright and Privacy
The New Surveillance, by Sonia Katyal, Case Western Law Review, Vol. 54, No. 297, 2004. “The goals of this Article are threefold: first, to trace the origins of piracy surveillance through recent jurisprudence involving copyright; second, to provide an analysis of the tradeoffs between public and private enforcement of copyright; and third, to suggest some… Continue Reading
Post 9/11, Airlines Provided FBI with Millions of Passenger Data Records
According to this New York Times article, major U.S. air carriers, pursuant to what industry officials characterized as requests of unprecedented scope, provided the FBI with millions of passenger travel records. Northwest alone gave the government 6,000 CDs of data. This article is based on information obtained through FOIA litigation by EPIC. Continue Reading
CA Sec. of State Bans E-Voting in 4 Counties
From the press release issued April 30 on the decertification of Diebold e-voting technology: “California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley today banned the use of touchscreen voting systems in four counties and decertified all touchscreen systems in California until security measures are in place to safeguard the November vote…In the remaining 10 counties using touchscreen… Continue Reading
New Medicare Website Generates Complaints
The launch of the Medicare.gov drug price comparison website has been accompanied by a chorus of complaints that the site provides inaccurate data, according to companies sponsoring the drug store discount cards for qualified Medicare recipients. Continue Reading
