Internet

By Nate House I have two laptops, one large and one small. I have a smartphone that is more powerful than both of them. It takes video and 14-megapixel photographs. It can tell me how to get from Atlantic City to New Delhi and how much traffic I'll hit on the way. It can scan items at the grocery store. It has more than 100 apps. And, if the wind is just right, it can make a phone call. I have three plasma, HD, flat-screen televisions with more than 700 channels. I have a Slingbox, a DVR, a DVD player, and a VCR. I have lightning-fast Internet and fiber-optic cable.

By David L. Cohen This week, the U.S. Conference of Mayors convenes its "Innovation Summit" here in Philadelphia, including a focus on broadband, the Internet, and all they enable. There's no better location for this summit. After all, Philadelphia was home to Benjamin Franklin, America's first great innovator. Franklin founded our nation's first public hospital, first public library, Philadelphia's Fire Department, and the University of Pennsylvania. He conducted the world's first grand experiments with electricity.

The pinup girl is alive and well and living in cyberspace - along with a couple of pinup boys. From Teri Hatcher in sexy Superman togs to Scott Bakula and Alyssa Milano shirtless, and from sources as diverse as People magazine and Celebrity Skin, photographs of movie stars and models in various states of dress and undress are abundant and reasonably easy to distribute and collect on the Internet. The quality isn't always sterling, but the price is right - free. Graphics files account for a hefty percentage of Usenet news, the Internet's giant collection of bulletin boards.

The opening of the Internet superhighway for Neshaminy School District students has been cleared. The school board recently passed guidelines on using the service in schools. Though the new policy paves the way for Internet access in labs and classrooms, questions remain about how violations will be dealt with and how school e-mail accounts will be monitored. The guidelines cover everything from e-mail to unauthorized World Wide Web sites. The rules dictate use of the Internet for education only; and compliance with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Communications Decency Act, which prohibits taking or disclosing e-mail messages without permission.

As an individual with disabilities (paraplegic, with m.s.), I am a devout Internet user for advocacy, personal and professional reasons, and I have to take issue with the first half of Donald Kaul's column (Sept. 8). I am aware of the Carnegie Mellon University study finding increased levels of depression and loneliness in some Internet users, but along with questioning the study's design, I disagree with Kaul's statement that the Internet is "probably not a good thing for society.

For gardeners on the Internet, a Texas-based firm called Garden Escape is joining the ranks of others offering such services. Garden Escape's wares range from advice on planning and design to a broad selection of premium plants, supplies and accessories. Through Garden Escape's address on the Internet, consumers can order anything from perennials and roses to imported tools and hard goods at the touch of a finger. The program can suggest plants that attract butterflies or are especially fragrant, depending on user preference, or which hard-to-grow perennials will flourish in shade.

Leaving children unattended while they surf the Internet can be like inviting a stranger into your home. That's the message being sent to parents by a new awareness program, Children's Partnership, designed to ensure that parents are as Internet-savvy as their children. "There is never a 100 percent guarantee," said Lt. Dennis McCauley of the Abington Police Department. "But if you follow the general guidelines, monitor kids' use of a computer, become familiar [with the Internet]

The Internet has become the global corner bar, with every computer terminal a bar stool from which people can share their uncensored thoughts. Anyone who has ever heard an uncensored thought knows how ugly that can be, but that's the downside of free communication. The cacophony of voices can also be refreshing, enlightening and entertaining. The last thing the world needs is the ham-handed interference of the U.S. Congress, dominated by Republicans who ironically enough promised to keep government off our backs.

Time was when fathers were not even allowed in the delivery room. But on Tuesday, when a woman from Orlando, Fla., identified only as Elizabeth, gave birth to a 7-pound, 8-ounce baby boy she named Sean, the whole world was invited to watch on the Internet. More than 50,000 cyberenthusiasts who wanted to share the miracle of birth jammed the Web site of America's Health Network, a Florida cable station that set up the event. As a result, only 5,000 viewers could watch the four-hour labor and delivery at any one time.

WASHINGTON - Current and former top U.S. officials on Sunday defended the government's collection of phone and Internet data following new revelations about the secret surveillance programs, saying the operations were essential in disrupting terrorist plots and did not infringe on Americans' civil liberties. In interviews on Sunday talk shows, guests including White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and former CIA and National Security Agency head Michael Hayden said the government's reliance on data collection from Americans and foreign nationals was constitutional and carefully overseen by executive, legislative, and court authorities.

ATLANTIC CITY - Internet gambling isn't expected to start here until about Thanksgiving, but the 12 casinos must move fast to line up partners for their online operations. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has told the casinos they have until June 30 to arrange Internet deals. The deadline is intended to give regulators time to examine the qualifications and backgrounds of companies that want to partner with the casinos, particularly since several foreign companies are considered likely to do so. For example, Bwin.party, based in Gibraltar, has inked a deal to partner with Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. Joe Lupo, Borgata's senior vice president, said the casino moved early to work with the firm.

We are getting close to the day. Not quite - but it's close. The day, that is, when more people use smartphones (cell phones always connected to the Internet, the world of apps, e-mail, media sharing, instant messaging) than use home broadband (your laptop or tower computer). A new study by the Pew Research Center shows that, for the first time, more than half of all adults - about 56 percent - own smartphones. That proportion has been growing rapidly: 19 percent in just the last two years.

By Nate House I have two laptops, one large and one small. I have a smartphone that is more powerful than both of them. It takes video and 14-megapixel photographs. It can tell me how to get from Atlantic City to New Delhi and how much traffic I'll hit on the way. It can scan items at the grocery store. It has more than 100 apps. And, if the wind is just right, it can make a phone call. I have three plasma, HD, flat-screen televisions with more than 700 channels. I have a Slingbox, a DVR, a DVD player, and a VCR. I have lightning-fast Internet and fiber-optic cable.

WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track one target or trace a whole network of associates, according to a top-secret document obtained by the Washington Post. The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers.

HAVANA - Cuban authorities said Tuesday that they would begin offering public Internet access at more than 100 cyber-salons across the island, though home Web service would remain greatly restricted. Starting next Tuesday, people can sign up with state telecom Etecsa for temporary or permanent accounts to use one of the 118 centers, according to a measure enacted with its publication in the government's Official Gazette. Until now, the Internet has been limited to places such as tourist hotels that charge $8 an hour for creaky WiFi, foreign-run companies, and some sectors of Cuban business and government.

By David L. Cohen This week, the U.S. Conference of Mayors convenes its "Innovation Summit" here in Philadelphia, including a focus on broadband, the Internet, and all they enable. There's no better location for this summit. After all, Philadelphia was home to Benjamin Franklin, America's first great innovator. Franklin founded our nation's first public hospital, first public library, Philadelphia's Fire Department, and the University of Pennsylvania. He conducted the world's first grand experiments with electricity.

Just as the Internet made Caleb "Kai" Lawrence McGillvary a cyber celebrity, viral news of him as a fugitive - wanted in the slaying of a North Jersey lawyer - led to his capture, law enforcement agencies said in interviews Friday. And while McGillvary, "the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker," lived large for months as a YouTube sensation, he looked slight and dazed Friday night as he heard the fugitive charge against him read on closed-circuit TV. Arraigned about 5 p.m. in Philadelphia before Magistrate Sheila M. Bedford, McGillvary responded, "I hear you," after she asked if he understood the charge.

  Show us your face. That's my solution to the online issue of incivility to which Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie recently fell victim at Philly.com. Vitriolic postings about his recent marriage illustrate the need for media-sponsored websites to implement the same rules that apply to a speaker sounding off in the town's square: Say what you want, but the public gets to see who you are. John Featherman, a Philly.com columnist, reported that as soon as word of Lurie's nuptials to a woman of Vietnamese heritage was published, a blogosphere barrage began.

DAN ROITMAN, chief executive of the Center City -based Stroll, is no fan of the Marketplace Fairness Act, the so-called Internet sales-tax bill expected to be voted on in the U.S. Senate on Monday. The legislation would empower states to reach beyond their borders and compel online marketers - like Stroll - to collect state and local sales taxes for online purchases. The sales taxes then would be sent to the state where a shopper lives. Stroll is an Internet-based marketing platform that sells audio language-learning products and had more than $80 million in revenues last year.