Welcome to another week of Buzzblog, The Newsletter:
* LATEST BUZZBLOG ITEMS WORTH CHECKING OUT:
Researchers credit xkcd with an assist in ambitious ‘Net census
USC researchers say it’s the first full census of the “visible Internet” since David Smallberg canvassed a piddling 315 addresses in 1982. They’re talking about 3 billion pings and 2.8 million addresses over 62 days. Oh, and they credit the comic strip xkcd, of all sources, for sparking the idea of presenting the data using a Hilbert curve.
AT&T surrenders in tempest over terms of use language
Having taken a royal beating in the press over terms-of-use language that appears to give the company freedom to pull the plug on critics, AT&T now says it will amend that language to assure everyone that it respects the First Amendment.
Verizon FiOS out for 5th time in 7 months, but …
This time it’s at least possible that Verizon is not to blame; both my wife and I are leaning in the charitable direction at this moment … although the conspiracy-minded among you may think otherwise.
Federal “fix” knocks ca.gov for a loop
A hacker’s diversion of traffic from a California government Web site to a porn purveyor spiraled into IT chaos last week after a countermeasure applied from Washington essentially “deleted the ca.gov domain.” To make matters worse, by the time those on the West Coast figured out what was happening, those on the East Coast were home eating dinner.
U.S. diplomats jump into blogging … and over a bull?
Even America’s diplomats are jumping on the blogging bandwagon. Why not? How else would we learn of the Sudanese custom that involves jumping over a freshly slaughtered bull?
It’s not just censorship keeping North Koreans in the dark
Do you remember the photo from space showing South Korea and North Korea at night? It’s worth noting again after North Korean President Kim Jong Il — a newly self-professed “Internet expert” — cited an unspecified “problem” that would need to be overcome before his country could have ubiquitous ‘Net access.
* BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:
* Vonage buys way out of patent flap with Sprint Nextel
* If you’d bought Google at $85 …
* Anyone have a good earworm remedy?
* NASA shoots for the moon: Wi-Fi by 2017
