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The CEO of Microsoft apparently has little technical knowledge and no interest in learning. Do you see any evidence that someone like that can run a technology company successfully?

Will Skype become the Zune of VOIP? Will Skype begin having serious problems like Hotmail?

Will Windows 8, due next year, be another grab for money, like Windows Vista and Windows ME?

Your system's clock skew fingerprint will give you away, with a tiny bit of Javascript. Who needs cookies, when your computer has intrinsic characteristics / artifacts from manufacturing that uniquely identify it?

I am not sure whether tracking your child is a good idea or not.
I don't tell other people how to raise their children.

If you wish to buy a tracker in a phone, here is some information.
Good Housekeeping expressed opinions
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/product-testing/reviews-tests/appliances-electronics/kid-cell-phones-0306
loc8u ofers a GPS Watch
http://www.switched.com/2009/01/07/lok8u-launches-gps-child-locator-watch-at-ces/
Wherify has one
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/wherify-wherifone-cell-phone-with-gps-locator-lets-you-gps-track-your-kids/
AT&T has one
http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com/AT-T-launches-child-locator-service_a1470.html
Here is a discussion of short and long range child locators
http://www.gpsfortoday.com/child-locators/
Amber Alert has one
http://www.gpschildtracker.net/child-gps-devices-systems-tracking-phone-chip-child-location

However, if you don't want to use a phone
and build more of it yourself,
here are some websites that may be useful:
http://www.tradekey.com/selloffer_view/id/2924121.htm
http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/gps-tracking-server.html
http://forums.coolest-gadgets.com/showthread.php?t=4079
http://www.ecplaza.net/search/0s1nf20sell/gps_tracker_%20gps_tracking_gps.html
http://5thirtyone.com/archives/876/comment-page-1

..if they are simply spawning windows that are opening new URLs. CasaleMedia and YieldManager are notorious for this. But all you need do is run a URL blocking program or extension (we love LeechBlock extension for Firefox) and plug in their domains. Here are two articles on how we do this: http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/companies-that-end-run-pop-up-blocking-to-shove-their-advertising-down-your-throat-and-how-to-stop-them http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/new-free-pop-up-blocker-for-a-new-breed-of-pop-ups

..if they are simply spawning windows that are opening new URLs. CasaleMedia and YieldManager are notorious for this. But all you need do is run a URL blocking program or extension (we love LeechBlock extension for Firefox) and plug in their domains. Here are two articles on how we do this: http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/companies-that-end-run-pop-up-blocking-to-shove-their-advertising-down-your-throat-and-how-to-stop-them http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/new-free-pop-up-blocker-for-a-new-breed-of-pop-ups

Speaking as (one of the few) Internet lawyers, and an Internet policy person, the hand-wringing hysterics coming out of this are ridiculous. Online services and sites can *already* sue people for ToS violations - they always could (it's a breach of contract). And a prosecutor isn't going to waste their time trying to criminalize a ToS violation when no action of a criminal nature has occurred. This was a *very* unusual case. To read our full analysis, see our article here: http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/internet-in-uproar-over-verdict-for-lori-drew-in-megan-meier-teen-suicide-case

My gawd - doesn't anybody at Slashdot *research* these things before publishing them??

Google did NOT say this!!

http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/complete-privacy-does-not-exist-statement-wrongly-attributed-to-google-in-lawsuit

UK:
http://functionpix.com/index.php/article/London_man_is_arrested_for_tapping_into_unsecured_WiFi_in_Chiswick/1586/

USA:
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/law-would-make-it-illegal-to-have-unsecured-wifi

And it may not even be the blog the original poster submitted. I submitted a story on MySpace getting false positives on sex-offender screening of their users. I linked to the blog where I'd found out about it when I submitted it (The Internet Patrol). When ScuttleMonkey posted the story to the front page, I still got credit for the submission, but some other blog was linked.

Now, the date on the other blog post was the day before my source, so it might have been that there were many submissions and my summary of the story was judged the best, but ScuttleMonkey judged the other blog the best/earliest example of the story, thus changing my TFA link. Or it might be that ScuttleMonkey changed the link for more nefarious reasons.

Interestingly, there was an article over on the Internet Patrol about Windows security just this week in which they point out that if Windows was a car, there would be a forced government recall. With Microsoft announcing an average of two new security flaws a week, and with the huge spread of botnets as a result, the article says

"If this were any other industry, the government would be mandating recalls - maybe even launching an investigation for criminal negligence.

In no other industry - in no other time in memory - has a company been able to get away with putting so many unsafe products in the hands of so many people, for such a long time, and with the potential to wreak such widespread havoc."

Amazingly, half of the comments to that article are sticking up for Windows. The article is at

http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/microsoft-windows-unsafe-at-any-speed

Yep, it's out there, and it's dead easy to do. Flexispy is a particularly insidious program that allows you to do it all, and do your spying on the tapped phone through a pretty web interface! Anyone can download it, and you only need to have the victim's phone a few minutes to install it! Currently available for all Blackberries, Nokia 60, and Windows Mobile phones, and they say that they are adding more all the time. Here's an article about it - where they are openly soliciting someone to test it out and report their results: http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/flexispy-cell-pho ne-tapping-software

I searched for "myspace spam theglobe"

And therein lies the rub. I hadn't known it before reading this interview (see below), but it turns out that the standard Big Studio contract indentures artists in a way that means that they get no royalties - none at all - until the studio is fully paid back for all cash spent by the studio for promotion, tours, etc.. What this means is that unless enough CDs are purchased to cover all of the studio's costs, the artist never sees a dime of royalties.

(You can read that interview here: http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/how-downloading-m p3s-really-does-take-money-out-of-the-artists-pock ets )

This, perhaps more than anything else, is why known artists are starting to strike out more and more on their own - something the Internet is great for.

$5 says he blames it on his recently deceased associate, protege, IT guy, and myspace user, Dustin Parker.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=us er.viewprofile&friendid=49322606

see comments on this page:
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/has-scott-richter -really-stopped-spamming-274million-lawsuit-by-inf inite-monkeyscom-says-no

-Anon

Not only is Firefox gaining, but IE7's badness is probably helping to push Firefox to the top, as people install IE7, have problems, and run away.

At The Internet Patrol site, we wrote up an IE7 article last month, and it is overwhelmingly our top article now with dozens of comments, nearly all of which are from people who installed IE7 and now regret it - many having broken systems since the IE7 install. (You can see it at http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/ie7-microsoft-int ernet-explorer-7-should-you-install-it )