Utilizing responsive web design can be a successful formula for both web and mobile platforms. Responsive web design will adapt to a user’s device and settings.
Check out this infographic on how responsive design is changing the web.
Shopping online may cost you a few extra dollars.
The Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013 passed the Senate by a 69 to 27 vote Monday evening.
CNN reports the bill would only apply to online sellers that have sales of at least $1 million in states where they don’t have physical operations, like a store or a warehouse.
For states that do not have a sales tax will be excluded from paying taxes on anything purchased online. One exception would states that do not collect sales tax, but are shipping to a state that does. Taxes would then have to be collected. For states that do, you’ll pay the same rate that you normally would in a store.
The bill now moves to the House of Representatives. You can track the latest bill status below:
What do you think of paying sales tax on Internet purchases?
Photo by: dbaron
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passed the House of Representatives last week despite veto threats from the White House.
Read More
The White House is threatening to veto CISPA again.
I blogged a few weeks ago that CISPA would allow the government and private companies to share data and information to prevent cyber attacks.
According to Mashable, “President Barack Obama’s senior advisors would recommend he issue a veto threat on privacy grounds if the bill reached his desk in its current form”.
The White House released this statement in a Statement of Adminstration Policy:
“The Administration supports the longstanding tradition to treat the Internet and cyberspace as civilian spheres, while recognizing that the Nation’s cybersecurity requires shared responsibility from individual users, private sector network owners and operators, and the appropriate collaboration of civilian, law enforcement, and national security entities in government.”
The House passed the bill last year, 248 to 168. The bill was never touched in the U.S. Senate because they were “working on its own comprehensive measure last year.”
Photo by: dbaron
In 2012, email is not dead, but thriving. In fact, according to a Ipsos Interactive Reid Report, 85% use the Internet compared to 61% who use it to check social media.
We’ve already seen social media and web-based elements integrated in email clients. I expect this trend to continue.
Personally I check my email multiple times a day and find it easier to follow messages without the clutter social networking sites have to offer.
In an effort to curb piracy over their services, five major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are expected to release a six-strike rule Monday.
According to the Verge, AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and Cablevision are “rolling out their Copyright Alert System Monday in a partnership with the entertainment industry.”
The Copyright Alert System (CAS) is designed to help consumers understand when files they may have shared illegally on peer-to-peer networks through their Internet accounts.((http://www.copyrightinformation.org/the-copyright-alert-system/))
This depends on what Internet Service Provider you have. For example, “AT&T will block users access to some of the most frequently visited websites on the Internet until the consumer takes a copyright course. Verizon will slow down connection speeds of repeated pirates, and Time Warner will temporarily interrupt people’s ability to browse the Internet.” The other two have not formally announced what their plans are.
None of the services providers will disconnect their customer’s services.
Torrentfreak.com says that ISPs were expected to send out the first copyright alerts by the end of 2011. The alerts were never sent out then and they weren’t at the July 2012 and December 2012 start dates.
Do you think this is a good way to stop online piracy? If you are an artist do you feel this will help protect your work?
Photo by: liako
In this digital age, Internet security is crucial. Many of us do our shopping, online banking and communicate with family and friends over the Internet.
This isn’t meant to scare you, but make you more aware that there are people trying to gather personal information from people on the Internet.
Yesterday I blogged about protecting your identity on social networking sites.
Here are some tips on preventing fraud online and protecting your identity:
Have you ever had your identity stolen online?
A controversial cybersecurity bill will be introduced on Capitol Hill.
According to The Hill’s Hillicon Valley blog, “leaders of the House Intelligence Committee will reintroduce the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) sometime this week.”
CISPA would allow the government and private companies to share data and information to prevent cyber attacks.
The House passed the bill last year, 248 to 168.
The bill was never touched in the U.S. Senate because they were “working on its own comprehensive measure last year.”
The bill introduced by member of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) and Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) is trying to combat a growing problem of cyber attacks on the United States government.
“The U.S. Cyber Command says there are 250,000 probes/attacks on U.S. government networks an hour, or 6 million a day, and among the attackers are some 140 foreign spy organizations. According to the federal Government Accountability Office, the number of actual breaches grew from 5,503 in 2006 to 41,776 in 2010, or 650 percent, the latest figure available.”
The Hill’s Hillicon Valley Blog reports that last year the White House threatened to veto the bill. It’s unclear how the White House will react to the bill this year.
Paralegal.nets reports the bill would allow companies to share your personal information with the government without you knowing. Information that’s collected from you is “proprietary” which means you don’t even have the right to know what data is being shared.
So your information that you provide through emails, social networking websites, blogs, and websites can be shared with the government and private companies to prevent cyber attacks.
The thing that is alarming is that users will not know when their data is being shared and who is reading the data.
While something needs to be done to prevent cyber attacks, U.S. citizens should have the right to know when their data is being shared and who will be reading it.
Photo by: dbaron
The Internet allows us to connect anywhere, anytime. This constant connection can be a good thing for communication and staying connected, but a bad thing if you’re trying to get away from it all. In fact, according to SinglePoint, 46 percent of Americans said they worked during their vacation in 2011.
This infographic shows how connected we are when we travel:
Cell phone companies are not the only ones capping your data usage, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are too.
I’ll be upfront, I’m strongly against capping data usage on from both phone companies and Internet Service Providers.
In October 2008, Comcast enacted a data cap of 250GB. You go over, you pay.
The problem is many consumers don’t realize there is a data cap and how to check how much data they are actually using.
During my research for this article, there hasn’t been concrete data on how much data users are actually consuming. If so, ISPs are being quite mum about it.
“As the basic pricing for broadband service has changed, the FCC has not kept up. It hasn’t distributed data on the consumers affected, established any sort of independent group to ensure that ISPs were tracking customers’ broadband usage fairly and doesn’t even insist that ISPs who implement caps provide meters to their customers.”
If these data restrictions are in place should Internet Service Providers be obligated to show you how much data you are using? I think so, especially if the charges are going to hit your wallet.
If, according to the New America Foundation, costs for Internet use continue to decrease then why do we need these caps?
Internet use among Americans has been increasing over the years. In order to keep up with demand, ISPs need to continue to maintain and improve their equipment to ensure quality of service.
A Michigan State University report supports the bandwidth caps stating, “the effects of well-designed [usage-based pricing] plans on consumers are likely to be beneficial, as are the effects of UBP on investments in the broadband infrastructure.”
The high demand also creates network congestion and slow downs when trying to get access to content online. However, Comcast admitted to the New America Foundation that data caps do not address the issue of network congestion.
I think it’s important to evaluate the quality of service that these ISPs are providing their customers. A FCC report released in July 2012 found there have been “striking across-the-board-improvements on key metrics underlying user performance” from August 2011 to April 2012.
While these ISPs are improving, the speed and rural penetration of broadband Internet in rural communities could be better.
Gigacom reports that the average U.S. broadband speed is 6.6 mbps and ranks 9th in speed worldwide. The country with the fastest speed is South Korea with an average broadband speed of 14.2 mbps.
introducing a bill in the Senate called the Data Cap Integrity Act. The act created by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) wasn’t enacted and was referred to committee in the 112th Congress.
As a digital journalist these data caps hurt our ability to provide meaningful and in-depth content. If users fear they’re consuming too much data will that stop them from visiting and engaging with our content?
Regulation, not restriction is needed to help digital journalism thrive. These data caps will ultimately influence how media companies share and distribute content.
I’m curious how many consumers know about these data caps. Do you?
Photo by: Steve Rhode
