Saddam Execution

Explicit images of Hussein's corpse and "unedited" cellphone video of the hanging including the moment of death are shown up online. A search on Google Video, YouTube, and other popular video services for "Saddam," "saddam hanging," or "saddam execution" yields copies of both the phonecam and Al Iraqiya footage.

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iTunes Site Slowed During Holiday Rush

A surge in Web traffic, driven by new iPod owners as well as those who received Apple gift cards, caused delays at Apple's iTunes Music Store on Christmas and the following day. Traffic to the iTunes store was up 413 percent on Christmas Day compared to the same day a year ago.

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Telephone and cable companies - including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner want to swallow Internet

The largest telephone and cable companies — including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner — want to be Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won't load at all.

They want to tax content providers to guarantee speedy delivery of their data. They want to discriminate in favor of their own search engines, Internet phone services, and streaming video — while slowing down or blocking their competitors.

What is this about?

This is about Internet freedom. "Network Neutrality" -- the First Amendment of the Internet -- ensures that the public can view the smallest blog just as easily as the largest corporate Web site by preventing Internet companies like AT&T from rigging the playing field for only the highest-paying sites.

You can help keep the internet free for all.

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Cloned Animals sold in grocery stores?

After years of delay, the Food and Drug Administration tentatively concluded today that milk and meat from some cloned farm animals are safe to eat. That finding, hailed by cloning companies and some livestock producers but criticized by consumer groups, could make the United States the first country to allow products from cloned livestock to be sold in grocery stores.

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MySpace infested with spammers and other losers

MySpace.com has trully become a place where spammers rule. They lure users to sexually explicit sites, clog mailboxes with spam messages, and exploit users' trust when speaking to "friends" to obtain passwords that could lead to identity theft.

One recent scam works this way: A spammer posts a number of phony profiles featuring pictures of cute women, often promising nude photos.

A "friend request" with the woman's photo is sent to hundreds of users.

Once the fake profile loads, a blue screen descends, saying the profile is protected by the "MySpace Adult Content Viewer."

Unsuspecting users who try to download the viewer instead get a worm that installs adware on their computers.

Although MySpace tries to fight it but it is a lost battle because there are millions of spammers against dozens of MySpace employees.

Consider yourself warned when you use MySpace.

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Mobile Social Communities to Count 174 Million Members by 2011

Mobile social communities, where people maintain connections to a niche community via cell phone-based services, currently count nearly 50 million members worldwide -- a number expected to reach 174 million in 2011, according to a report from market research firm ABI Research.

"The rapid rise of online social communities -- gathering places such as MySpace and Facebook -- has done more than bring the 'pen pal' concept into the 21st century," said ABI vice president Clint Wheelock. "It has created a new paradigm for personal networking. In a logical progression, many social communities are now based on the mobile phone and other portable wireless devices instead of (or as well as) the PC."

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"The L Word" launches Online Social Network for Lesbians

"The L Word" series plans to launch an online social network for lesbians and their friends.

Launching in January, OurChart.com will feature both original content and encourage users to upload their own content; the site's name comes from a storyline in the TV series where a whiteboard "chart" is used to keep track of connections between the show's characters. OurChart founding partners include "L Word" cast members Jennifer Beals, Katherine Moennig and Leisha Hailey, who will develop content for the site that reflects their personal interests.

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Skype TV goes live soon

Skype, a provider of Internet telephone services, plans to launch a broadband TV service next year, the Financial Times reported on Monday. Development of the service was financed by Skype creators Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, with proceeds from the company's $2.6 billion sale to eBay last year. Codenamed the Venice Project, the TV service has been in beta testing with 6,000 users, and can deliver high-quality, full-screen video to PCs, FT.com reported. The peer-to-peer technology on which Skype is based will be able to deliver video programming to "tens of millions of users," Friis told the Financial Times. Skype currently claims over 136 million users for its Internet-based telephone service.

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Eli Lilly fired back against a New York Times on Zyprexa charges

Eli Lilly & Co. Monday fired back against a New York Times article that claims the firm promoted schizophrenia drug Zyprexa for off-label use.

The Times article published over the weekend said Lilly has been touting Zyprexa for the unapproved indication to treat dementia in elderly patients.

However, the company released a statement Monday saying, "At Lilly, we do not engage in off-label promotion -- as alleged in The Times article. Lilly is committed to the highest ethical standards and to promoting our medications only for approved uses."

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78% of Active U.S. Internet Users Now Have Broadband at Home

More than three-quarters of active Internet users in the U.S. now have broadband access at home, according to a new report from Nielsen/NetRatings. The firm said that 78% of home Internet users connect through broadband hook-ups, primarily either cable or DSL. The figure is up 13% from a year ago.

The report also found that broadband users stay online 33% longer than dial-up users, surfing for an average of 34 hours, 50 minutes in November and viewing twice as many web pages.

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Apple iTunes Sales Down 65% in First Half of 2006

Sales at Apple's iTunes Store fell 65% in the first six months of 2006, according to a survey of U.S. iTunes debit and credit card purchases conducted by Forrester Research. The number of monthly iTunes transactions dropped 58% in the first half of 2006, while the average size of purchase also declined by 17%, the report said.

Forrester couched the report's findings by noting that it wasn't clear whether seasonal sales patterns may be a factor. A majority of sales are generally transacted in the second half of the year. Overall, 3% of online households polled by the firm have made an iTunes purchase in the past year, with buyers spending an average of $35 for the year. Half of all transactions cost $3 or less.

"Only Apple knows just how much profit there is at the end of the day on a $1.98 credit card transaction for two songs, but with transaction costs, hosting costs, and the wholesale price of the songs, there's not much margin left," Forrester said.

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Build your own Games from Microsoft

Microsoft on Monday launched new software and an accompanying service that will let aspiring game developers create games and post them to share with one another. The XNA Game Studio Express software is available to anyone with a Windows XP-based PC. The company's new XNA Creators Club -- available for $49 for a four-month subscription or $99 annually -- provides amateur developers on the Xbox 360 with access to thousands of game assets, white papers, starter kits and technical product support. Microsoft also announced details of its "Dream-Build-Play" contest, which will publish the best amateur-developed game titles on the Xbox Live Arcade service.

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Mobile phones don't cause brain cancer study finds...

Research involving almost half a million people for up to 10 years has concluded there is no link between mobile phone use and cancers of the head or neck. This is the largest study ever done.

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Trans Fats officially outlawed in New York

The New York Board of Health has officially and unanimously outlawed artificial trans fats in restaurants.

New York City Commissioner of Health, said: “We need to get this artificial substance out of our food supply. You've already seen McDonald's, KFC, Arby's, Wendy's, a variety of national chains saying they've made significant progress in this area and I think all New Yorkers should be proud of the fact that we're really in the lead in insuring food safety.”

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