Paul McNamara

News Editor

and 'Net Buzz columnist.

paul_mcnamara@nww.com (508) 490-6471 Fax: (508) 490-6438

Network World, Inc. 118 Turnpike Road Southborough, MA 01772

Recent articles by McNamara

Another pair of deadline-extending dodges
Jul. 02, 2009
An item here last week about the Web site Corrupted-Files.com had one reader reaching deep into the memory bank for similar tale that also deserves sharing.

Want a city job? Fork over your usernames, passwords
Jun. 19, 2009
Officials who run the city of Bozeman, Montana -- perhaps setting a new standard for privacy invasion in the name of public safety -- are insisting that job applicants cough up their usernames and passwords for any ...

How headline writers create news
Jun. 18, 2009
You have to hand it to the tabloid headline writers at the New York Post: They know nothing if not how to turn the tiniest spark into a five-alarm conflagration.

Reading the fine print … so you don't have to
Jun. 11, 2009
Next time a major Web site such as Facebook, Google or eBay changes their seldom-read terms of service, a new project from the Electronic Frontier Foundation will be there to chronicle the alterations and highlight them ...

5 'marketing opportunities' hospitals are missing
May. 29, 2009
Doctors Twittering from the operating room is yesterday's news. "Brain Surgery Cam"? Now that one got my attention while reading the May 24 edition of The New York Times.

Google ran out of bandwidth? … Google?
May. 14, 2009
For a while there a few days ago it sure seemed to some as though the Google Chrome browser development team had proven again that no matter how much bandwidth is made available, someone, somewhere, for some reason, is ...

Meet Francis, a failed phishe
May. 07, 2009
The subject line alone was enough to unmask this criminal mastermind: "This message it is confidential." This message it is really not from the IRS.

Street View-style voyeurism stretches skyward
Apr. 30, 2009
Arrive at the Gigapixel Photography Web site and you'll see a gorgeous photo of a dozen condominium towers stretched across the Vancouver skyline, yachts docked in the foreground, dusk bathing the scene in a rich blue ...

Politicians need their own slice of the 'Net
Apr. 23, 2009
On the surface, Washington attorney Matt Sanderson would appear to be pitching a tough sell: special protection online for politicians and would-be politicians. However, because the villains here are predatory criminals ...

Fact-checking the fact-checkers
Apr. 16, 2009
What's your first thought when someone spreads an e-mail around the office claiming that Oprah is giving away a million bucks or that your penny-pinching state will no longer send out reminders about driver's license ...

Workplace surfing hounds have a new hero
Apr. 09, 2009
Surfing the Internet for fun while at work actually increases employee productivity, insists Dr. Brent Coker, a researcher at the University of Melbourne's Department of Management and Shirking.

The FCC teaches me a lesson: Don't complain
Apr. 02, 2009
Six months ago I filed a complaint online with the FCC about mistreatment suffered by my family at the hands of a run-amok Verizon robo-call system. I recently received a response from the agency via snail-mail … which ...

Tweeting with a celebrity 'sparks kitchen fire'
Mar. 23, 2009
It was only a matter of time before this Twitter madness leapt from merely hypnotizing the masses and bastardizing the language to causing real-world mayhem for those (like me) caught in its seductive clutches.

Google's new 'Tip Jar' offers small change
Mar. 12, 2009
The notion is to harness that ballyhooed wisdom of the Internet crowds in order to help us all save money in our everyday lives.

Keeping the government's prying eyes at bay
Mar. 09, 2009
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) last week took the wraps off a new Web site that is designed to help you keep the government from taking the wraps off your personal communications and stored data.

If you had to choose? | NetworkWorld.com Community
Jul. 01, 2009
Survey shows far too many far too attached to their mobile phones

'Swatting' case shows need to ban caller-ID spoofing | NetworkWorld.com Community
Jun. 30, 2009
Fake calls to 911 cause untold trouble, land teen an 11-year sentence

Ants munching? | NetworkWorld.com Community
Jun. 29, 2009
So who do we blame for our latest FiOS outage?

Another pair of deadline-extending dodges | NetworkWorld.com Community
Jun. 26, 2009
Although you may have to travel back in time to actually use them

It turns out most every technology 'is like crack' | NetworkWorld.com Community
Jun. 24, 2009
You thought techno-addiction was limited to the crackberry and video games?

40% of geeks surveyed really work … how little?
Feb. 26, 2009
I had been meaning to write about this Slashdot poll, but other work kept getting in the way. As you'll see from the survey results, not everyone can claim that excuse … at least not with a straight face:

Social networks all over the map on reliability
Feb. 23, 2009
That Twitter had more downtime last year (84 hours) than any of 15 social network sites measured by an uptime monitoring service should surprise no one: The site's "fail whale" is so famous it was just featured in the ...

Girl's 22,795 messages nothing to celebrate
Feb. 16, 2009
This story about a 12-year-old Indiana girl is quickly becoming a cliché … and not a flattering one in terms of what it says about our society. This girl, you see, is one of those texting prodigies -- a Mozart who's all ...

Google execs on trial in Italy over a video
Feb. 09, 2009
Read that headline again because it boggles the mind (mine, at least): Italian prosecutors have placed four Google executives on criminal trial over their roles -- which were non-existent -- in the posting of a video ...

College student wins free-speech spat, but .- Network World
Jan. 29, 2009
News arrived this week via the Electronic Frontier Foundation that Michigan State University had dropped disciplinary action against a student who had been accused of spamming and network abuse because she sent e-mail ...