August 23, 2004 - In his new book "We the Media Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People," Dan Gillmor describes how Weblogs, digital cameras, e-mail lists and other technologies are making it possible for average people to take the news into their own hands. Gillmor says journalism is becoming more of a conversation and less of a lecture, with the line between news producer and consumer growing increasingly fuzzy.
August 20, 2004 - Frustrated by the worldwide digital divide, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University has created a combination computer/television/DVD player/videophone designed for the billions of people who make less than two thousand dollars per year.
August 19, 2004 - A new study says for the first time, more Americans are using fast cable or DSL connections to access the internet than dial-up accounts. Broadband makes for much faster music and video downloads. For example, a three minute song that might take a half hour to download over dial-up will take only a few minutes over broadband.
August 18, 2004 - Most publications use a capital "I" to begin the word "internet." Technology news and culture site Wired News capitalized Internet, "Web" and "net" until Monday. No more, says copy chief Tony Long. He says there never was a good reason to capitalize Internet.
August 10, 2004 - Digital video recorders, DVRs for short, can record hundreds of hours of television programs without bulky tapes. They're easier to program than VCRs, and let you skip through commercials more efficiently than programs recorded on tape. Tivo's devoted customers praise its elegant, easy-to-use software. But the company has always struggled, because consumer adoption has been slower than hoped.
August 2, 2004 - A new short film on the Internet turns on its head the classic going-off-to-war song "Danny Boy." Frank Lesser, who's fresh out of Brown University film school and working as a writer in New York, wrote and directed the film "Danny Bot." Frank Lesser is writer and director of "Danny Bot," which you can watch at dannybot-dot-com.
July 30, 2004 - By employing an unusual technique called a "Dutch Auction" to price its initial public offering, Google could be making the process too difficult for the small investor, according to some critics. The Google Dutch Auction works like this: The company and its advisors set a price range for a share of stock. That part has already happened. Tom Taulli with IPO research site CurrentOfferings.com takes it from here.
July 29, 2004 - Declan McCullagh with CNET News.com has examined Federal Election Commission records to see who Silicon Valley big-wigs are supporting in the presidential campaign. FEC rules limit individual contributions to $2,000. Michael Dell of Dell Computers gave his two grand to President Bush, as did eBay's Meg Whitman. Walter Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard fame, has thrown his support to John Kerry. Ditto for former Intel CEO Andy Grove.
July 27, 2004 - Software like "Adobe Photoshop" makes it easy to alter digital photographs. Even the moderately skilled person can make a fake image that looks real. Associate professor of computer science at Dartmouth College, Hany Farid, has developed several algorhithms that detect subtle changes to digital images. These techniques could help guarantee the authenticity of news photos, crime scene photos, spy satellite images and political propaganda.
July 26, 2004 - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch says Congress must pass legislation that will kill digital file swapping companies like Kazaa. That legislation is called the "Induce Act," and it's perhaps the boldest campaign by the entertainment industry so far to put an end to what it sees as lethal copyright infringement of music and movies. The bill would allow entertainment companies to sue file-sharing networks for enticing people who use their software to illegally share and download copyrighted material.