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Municipal Wi-Fi Metro-net (19 November 04:09) |
| Public wireless internet has had a tough time in America. Can Britain do better?ON A cold and drizzly autumn day, no one would mistake Swindon, a prosperous mid-sized town near Bristol, for ... |
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A spat among professional networks Class war (19 November 04:09) |
| Does local beat global in the professional-networking business?IN THE three-way fight between the biggest online professional networks—America’s LinkedIn, France’s Viadeo a... |
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Music piracy Singing a different tune (12 November 04:33) |
| The battle against online music piracy is turning. A return to growth will take a good deal longer“ROCK and roll is dead,” sang Lenny Kravitz. It is certainly poorly. Music was t... |
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Music industry How to sink pirates (12 November 04:33) |
| The decline of music piracy holds lessons for other industriesYOU open a window on your computer’s screen. You type in the name of a cheesy song from the 1980s. A list of results appea... |
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Video games move online A giant sucking sound (05 November 04:31) |
| The internet swallows another media business, but spits out some hopeIN THE eyes of media executives, the internet is a malevolent vacuum-cleaner, sucking in one business after another. Musi... |
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The information-technology industry revives Back to the circuit board (22 October 04:13) |
| Tech firms are doing so well that boosters say they will spur a broader economic recovery. That is unlikelyTHIS year’s Web 2.0 Summit, an annual technology conference in San Francisco,... |
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The IT business rebounds Betting on bytes (21 October 05:34) |
| Optimism that tech firms will help kick-start economic recovery is overdoneEVERY year, many leading lights of the internet world congregate at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The 2009 e... |
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Digital publishing Making its bookmark (16 October 11:57) |
| Google wants to shake up the digital book marketIT WAS a fitting place to announce an experiment in bookselling. At the Frankfurt book fair on Thursday October 15th, Tom Turvey of Google rev... |
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Press freedom and the internet Barbra Streisand strikes again (15 October 04:18) |
| A gagging order backfiresTHIS week a national newspaper ran a fascinating story about absolutely nothing. The Guardian reported on its front page on October 13th that a question had been tab... |
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Computing Battle of the clouds (15 October 04:18) |
| The fight to dominate cloud computing will increase competition and innovationTHERE is nothing the computer industry likes better than a big new idea—followed by a big fight, as differ... |
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Cloud computing Clash of the clouds (15 October 04:18) |
| The launch of Windows 7 marks the end of an era in computing—and the beginning of an epic battle between Microsoft, Google, Apple and othersDO YOU have plans for next weekend? If not, ... |
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Smart grids Wiser wires (08 October 04:17) |
| Information technology can make electricity grids less wasteful and much greener. Businesses have lots of ideas and governments are keen, but obstacles remainWHAT was the greatest engineerin... |
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The boom in smart-phones Cleverly simple (01 October 04:34) |
| As internet-capable handsets become more popular, they are also changingIF THE recession is the cloud hanging over the mobile-phone business, “smart” phones are the silver lining... |
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Regulating the internet ICANN be independent (24 September 04:23) |
| America is poised to loosen its control over cyberspaceFORTY years ago this month American academics sent the first message over the ARPANET, a military network that was the precursor of tod... |
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America insists on net neutrality The rights of bits (24 September 04:23) |
| A controversial plan for keeping digital arteries open to allWHEN he was still a mere senator, Barack Obama pledged to take swift action to ensure that the internet remained a level playing ... |
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An assault on online piracy in China Public morals and private property (24 September 04:23) |
| Chinese websites come to the defence of Western intellectual propertyTHE government of China allows only a trickle of foreign films and television shows to be imported, claiming the restrict... |
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Finishing the job (24 September 04:23) |
| Mobile-phone access will soon be universal. The next task is to do the same for the internetHOW long will it be before everyone on Earth has a mobile phone? “It looks highly likely tha... |
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Marketing on social networks Friends for sale (17 September 05:29) |
| What is a Facebook friend worth?ONLINE social networks are handy not just as a means of wasting time but also as a communications tool for business. Dell, a computer-maker, has made $3m in s... |
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Googles corporate culture Creative tension (17 September 05:29) |
| The internet giant seeks new ways to foster innovationFEW companies are as creative as Google, which serves up innovations almost as fast as its popular search-engine serves up results. This... |
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Techview On the web at warp speed (11 September 06:02) |
| Google goes in search of an instant operating systemNEWS that Sony would be installing Google’s Chrome browser on its sleek, if pricey, Vaio laptops instead of the ubiquitous Internet ... |
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The trouble with pornography Hard times (10 September 04:07) |
| A big industry in northern Los Angeles is among the worst hit by the recessionEVEN Nina Hartley, who became a pornographic actress in 1984 and continues to be one of its most sought-after pe... |
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Vietnams nationalist bloggers Getting it off your chest (10 September 04:07) |
| A crackdown on online patriotismIN A country as fiercely patriotic as Vietnam, you would expect the government to cheer a plan by citizens to distribute T-shirts bearing nationalistic slogan... |
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Face value Iliads warrior (10 September 04:07) |
| The rise of Xavier Niel, a controversial internet entrepreneur, says a lot about French business“IF I commit suicide, or if I die in a car accident in the next three months or so, you ... |
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Techview The internet at forty (04 September 05:20) |
| A mid-life crisis threatens its futureTHIS past week marked the 40th birthday of the internet. And, like most other things on the brink of middle-age, the internet is struggling with its own... |
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Monitor Only humans allowed (03 September 04:16) |
| Computing: Can online puzzles that force internet users to prove that they really are human be kept secure from attackers?ON THE internet, goes the old joke, nobody knows you’re a dog.... |
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Journalists in jail The price of truth (03 September 04:16) |
| For reporters, a moment of fear SRI LANKA was always a hard place for hacks; but by any standards, 20 years’ jail is a harsh penalty for a newsman doing his job. That term was meted ou... |
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Selling designer goods online When cheap is exclusive (03 September 04:16) |
| Hard times for luxury retailers are good times for discount fashion websitesTHE racks of expensive gowns and shoes sit, serene and mostly untouched, on the floors of Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergd... |
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eBay sells Skype Lets call the whole thing off (03 September 04:16) |
| The online auctioneer fills its coffers but does not solve its problemsTHE what was no surprise, but the who and the how much were. On September 1st eBay, the giant of online auctions, annou... |
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Google books Tome raider (03 September 04:16) |
| A fuss over the internet search firm’s effort to build a huge digital libraryPAUL COURANT, the dean of libraries at the University of Michigan, jokes that he also runs “an orphan... |
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Digital publishing Googles big book case (03 September 04:16) |
| The internet giant’s plan to create a vast digital library should be given a green lightTO ITS opponents, it is a brazen attempt by a crafty monopolist to lock up some of the worldR... |
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Monitor Keeping pirates at bay (03 September 04:16) |
| Policing the internet: The music industry has concluded that lawsuits alone are not the way to discourage online piracyTHREE big court cases this year—one in Europe and two in America&... |
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Skype and eBay Lets call the whole thing off (02 September 01:19) |
| Selling Skype may not solve all eBay’s troublesTHE what was no surprise, but the who and the how much were. On Tuesday September 1st, eBay, the world’s largest online-auction hou... |
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Tackling internet piracy The spider and the web (27 August 04:14) |
| The latest effort to cut piracy is less dim than its predecessorsSCOTTISH legend has it that Robert the Bruce once took shelter in a cave, where he noticed a spider repeatedly trying, and fa... |
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Charging for newspapers online Now pay up (27 August 04:14) |
| Newspapers have plenty of options for charging online, but no sure betsIF NEWSPAPER bosses keep their promises, the next few months will see a decisive retreat from free news online. This su... |
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Electronic-book readers multiply Screen test (27 August 04:14) |
| A dust-up over digital dust jacketsSINCE it was unveiled in 2007 Amazon’s Kindle has dominated the fledgling market for devices that let users download and read electronic books. Now i... |
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Greenview Computing climate change (24 August 05:03) |
| How much carbon dioxide do computers emit?AVIATION has long been blamed for its share of anthropogenic global warming. Indeed, some travellers now ask themselves whether their flight is stri... |
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Online auctions Mind the pennies (13 August 04:57) |
| The rapid spread of “entertainment shopping” spurs indignationIT IS a familiar format: the stopwatch on the website counts down the time remaining to make bids in the online auct... |
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The creation of Facebook Friends and foes (06 August 04:24) |
| A saga of Facebook's creation offers no deep insightsThe Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal. By Ben Mezrich. Doubleday; 272 pages; $... |
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How to keep communications secret This message will self-destruct (04 August 09:05) |
| A new way of keeping private correspondence privateWHEN Barack Obama became American president, one of his first tussles with White House lawyers was over whether he could keep his beloved B... |
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Spotify v illegal downloads Free but legal (30 July 04:41) |
| pAdvertising-supported music will not save a troubled industry But it helpsppCAN legal free music compete with the illegal stuff It seems so Firms such as Spotify founded by Swedish programm... |
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A deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! Bingoo! (30 July 04:41) |
| pThe world8217s biggest software firm and web portal team up to challenge GoogleppUSERS will probably not notice the difference But the deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! the world8217s bigge... |
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Microsoft Yahoo! and Google Taking sides (29 July 01:07) |
| pMicrosoft and Yahoo! strike a long-awaited deal ppUSERS will probably not notice all that much But the deal may be seen one day as a significant event in the internet industry Microsoft and... |
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Virtual worlds for children Online playgrounds (23 July 04:22) |
| pThere is life in virtual reality after allppREMEMBER Second Life the virtual world that was supposed to become almost as important as the first one Now populated by no more than 84000 avata... |
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Monetising social networks Tweeting all the way to the bank (23 July 04:22) |
| pCan virtual communities make billions of dollars from their millions of connectionsppWHENEVER the founders of Twitter a social-networking service have been asked about how much revenue they... |
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Local newspapers in peril The town without news (23 July 04:22) |
| pAs local newspapers collapse information is finding new ways to reach people Not all are high-techppWHAT happens when a place loses its newspaper Most of the 80 or so local papers that have... |
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The fever under the surface (23 July 04:22) |
| pA silent social revolutionppPRESIDENT ASSAD8217S decision to nip the reform movement in the bud in 2005 should not have surprised Syria8217s would-be democrats for this was a moment of extr... |
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Online gambling in Europe: A stacked deck (16 July 04:00) |
| Recalcitrant European governments refuse to open their gambling marketsPROFESSIONAL poker players say that if you have been playing for a while and cannot figure out who the patsy is, itR... |
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Online education: Raising Alabama (16 July 04:00) |
| An experiment in levelling the playing fieldON A sweltering day in Alexander City, Alabama, summer school was in full swing. Two girls were reading “Julius Caesar” as two others ... |
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How betting online began: An easy birth (16 July 04:00) |
| The story of BetfairYou Bet: The Betfair Story—How Two Men Changed the World of Gambling. By Colin Cameron. HarperCollins; 320 pages; $24.95 and GBP15.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.c... |
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Online gambling in Europe: Stacking the deck (16 July 04:00) |
| Prohibition of online gambling is driven by a desire to protect revenues, not consumersWHO says Europe cannot produce internet giants? In one area of online commerce, at least, its companies... |
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