Internet & Media- Page 1205

Where to go for fried chicken in North Korea

A Google Earth interactive Web site called North Korea Economy Watch not only sheds light on that country's economic, military, and cultural infrastructure, but also maps some of its darkest secrets.

The site is intended as a resource for business, policy makers, academics, journalists and others interested in the North Korean economy, according to founding editor Curtis Melvin. Academic in nature, it shies away from editorializing on hot potatoes issues like the manufacturing of nuclear weapons, and starving peasants.

But it's all there for viewers to form their own conclusions. Palatial mansions and vast compounds for Kim Jong … Read more

Google releases Google Wave demonstration video

For those who are having a little trouble understanding exactly what Google Wave is all about, seeing it in action might help you wrap your head around the concept.

Google has released video of Thursday's keynote speech at Google I/O in San Francisco, where the company publicly demonstrated Google Wave for the first time before about 4,000 developers. Google Wave is an ambitious, if incomplete, attempt to reinvent e-mail and Internet communication in general.

Developers are just starting to get their hands on Google Wave to try it out for themselves, but the public is not expected … Read more

Yahoo adds Google Suggest developer to labs

Yahoo has snagged a Googler, adding Yoelle Maarek from Google's Haifa Engineering Center to its ranks.

The company announced Friday that Maarek would be joining Yahoo Labs as co-leader of Yahoo's Haifa Lab in Israel. Maarek, also a veteran of IBM Research, specializes in search technologies.

Maarek's most noteworthy contribution at Google was probably Google Suggest, developed by a team she led at Google's Haifa Engineering Center. Google Suggest is the term for the search terms that appear below the query box as you type in the first few letters of a query.

Study: DRM makes pirates of us all

We here at CNET get all of our movies and music the old-fashioned way: through hard work, grit, and elbow grease. We roll up our sleeves, suck it up, and put in the hard work. (Sorry, I was going for the record of most cliches in one paragraph there. I can't confirm what I just wrote is actually true.)

So, yes, CNET does it the hard way (I think), but not everyone does. In University of Cambridge professor Patricia Akester's report titled "Technological accommodation of conflicts between freedom of expression and DRM: the first empirical assessment,"… Read more

Bank robber arrested after boasting of crime on MySpace

Here's a bizarre use of MySpace that I'm actually glad about.

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice in Columbia, S.C., a man's message on his MySpace page helped authorities arrest him on bank robbery charges.

Joseph Wade Northington, 27, of Roanoke, Va., pleaded guilty Thursday in a Columbia, S.C., federal court to using a firearm during a violent crime.

On January 20, during a visit to North Augusta, S.C. Northington allegedly robbed the Security Federal Bank there of $3,924. After he returned to Virginia, the man with … Read more

D7 puts tech on the hot seat

Hosted by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, the D: All Things Digital conference, now in its seventh year, brings out some of the biggest names in the online business.

Video: Hands-on look at the Zune HD As All Things D wrapped up on Thursday, CNET News' Ina Fried got a quick chance to get close to the Zune HD, which Microsoft plans to ship this fall. (Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried) May 28, 2009 3:47 PM PDT

Palm shows Pre at D Former Apple hardware guru Jon Rubinstein shows some new features of the Pre smartphone and … Read more

Mozilla executives address Firefox's challenges

CARLSBAD, Calif.--Although it has managed to grab nearly a quarter of the browser market, Mozilla now finds itself in an unenviable position--competing against Microsoft, Apple, and Google all at the same time.

Speaking at D: All Things Digital on Thursday, Mozilla's Mitchell Baker noted that the company didn't set out with that in mind.

"That's not the business model you are going to pick," Baker said. "It is a daunting space to compete with the three giants of the era."

That said, Baker and fellow Mozilla executive John Lilly said there is still a place for Firefox.

"We've just got to be us," Lilly said. "Mozilla has always been about scratching an itch."

Another challenge, Lilly said, is that people don't perceive the browser as something that changes their Web experience. "Most people just think it's this pane of glass," Lilly said. Three quarters of people use the browser that comes with their computer, he said.

But browsers are important, Lilly maintained.

"We spend more time with our browser than we do in our cars," Lilly said. "The real truth, I spend more time with my browser than I do with my family." … Read more

At D7, Washington Post meets Huffington Post

CARLSBAD, Calif.--The Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth on Thursday tried to put the best face on the changes that have battered the newspaper industry.

"There is no doubt we have our challenges," Weymouth said, appearing on the D: All Things Digital stage along with Arianna Huffington. "We are going through this incredible seismic shift in the industry."

At the same time, she noted that 90 percent of The Washington Post's Internet traffic is outside he Washington Post, presenting the paper with an opportunity that didn't exist in print.

"We have to adapt,&… Read more

NBC's Zucker: 'Seinfeld' wouldn't make it today

CARLSBAD, Calif.--NBC Universal's chief executive said the changing economics of television means that networks have to change the way programming is done.

There's room for hits and there's room for inexpensive programming, Jeff Zucker said Thursday, speaking at the D: All Things D conference.

"What's gone is the middle," Zucker said. "You cannot sustain just average programming."

That also means shows have less time to mature, he said. Zucker noted that "Seinfeld" would probably not make it in today's environment, noting it did just so-so in an initial … Read more

Behind the iPhone-created New Yorker cover

The art that graces the cover of this week's New Yorker magazine is entitled "Finger Painting." It's the ideal name, since the artist created it using nothing more than his finger and trusty iPhone.

Artist Jorge Colombo designed the scene of a New York City hot dog vendor using an iPhone app called Brushes, software he only started using in February. Created by developer Steve Sprang, the $4.99 program lets anyone from amateur to professional draw and paint using the iPhone as canvas.

In e-mail interviews with CNET News, both the artist and the developer … Read more