Internet & Media

Geocoding error distorts L.A. crime statistics

The Los Angeles Police Department is battling a virtual crime wave in downtown L.A. caused by an Internet map coding error.

If the department's online crime map is to be believed, one might think that a downtown location just a block from the LAPD's new headquarters is the most crime-ridden place in the city. In the past six months, that location experienced 1,380 crimes--4 percent of all crimes mapped--or roughly eight a day.

The crimes were real, but the locations were off. A coding error within the system's geocoding--the process of converting addresses into map … Read more

The dark secrets of Whopper Sacrifice

SAN FRANCISCO--"I don't know how many of you actually got sacrificed out there, but condolences to you," said Matt Walsh, head of the Interaction Design department at ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky, as he surveyed the audience at his Friday morning talk at the Web 2.0 Expo.

CP&B, after all, was the creator of the "Whopper Sacrifice" phenomenon, a Burger King ad campaign on Facebook that promised a coupon for a free hamburger if participants deleted 10 people from their friends lists on the social network. It was a wild … Read more

VLC 0.9.9: The best media player just got better

If you've ever struggled to play a file you downloaded from the hinterlands of the Web, you clearly didn't try opening it with VideoLan's VLC media player, a free, hugely popular, and open-source media player. VLC can open anything.

VideoLan released on Thursday version 0.9.9, a bug fix release that corrects a few issues with the previous version.

The best media player just got better and is rapidly approaching 1.0 status.

Version 0.9.9 adds the following improvements to the feature-packed VLC player:

Fullscreen behavior on Windows with multiple screens. Workaround bug with … Read more

Google in talks to buy Twitter? Reports conflict

Updated at 6:32 a.m. PDT Friday with All Things D's denial and Google's no-comment, at 7:10 a.m. PDT with further TechCrunch information, and 9:10 a.m. with Twitter comment.

Google is in "late stage" talks to acquire microblogging service Twitter, according to a report on Thursday on TechCrunch citing two unnamed sources.

All Things Digital's Kara Swisher, however, on Friday said the report isn't true, also citing unnamed sources and saying the companies have only been in product-related discussions. And a TechCrunch update backpedaled a bit, citing another source … Read more

Studio: Good chance FBI can trace 'Wolverine' leak

FBI agents have started looking for whoever uploaded to the Web an incomplete version of the unreleased movie "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

The film, which reportedly cost $100 million to make, was not scheduled for theatrical release until May 1 but was leaked to the Web Tuesday evening. Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said Thursday that the agency is responsible for investigating copyright infringement and allegations of piracy.

She said the bureau received a call within the last 24 hours from 20th Century Fox, the News Corp.-owned studio that produced "… Read more

Wired.com lays off 12 percent of staff

For the second time in five months, Wired.com, the Internet arm of Wired magazine, has trimmed its staff.

According to a Twitter post from Evan Hansen, the Web site's editor in chief, the company laid off 3 out of 25 full-time staffers or 12 percent of its workforce.

"Reports of Wired.com 'gutting' greatly exaggerated," Hansen wrote on Twitter, presumably referring to published reports about Wired.com's layoffs. "We cut three staff, five contractors, (and) still have 45 people working for us overall."

Among those who lost their jobs was Eliot Van Buskirk, … Read more

Goodmail debuts e-mail service with streaming video

Goodmail Systems unveiled on Thursday its CertifiedVideo, which offers streaming video capabilities within e-mail.

Goodmail, which provides companies and nonprofits with encrypted e-mail, is adding embedded streaming video capabilities to its service.

"Americans watched more than 14 billion online videos this past January alone. With CertifiedVideo, consumers can now watch videos within their e-mail in-box without having to click to an external Web site, and brands can tap into shifting media consumption habits and craft truly interactive, e-mail 3.0 marketing campaigns," Peter Horan, Goodmail CEO, said in a statement.

AOL is the first e-mail provider to offer … Read more

Net traffic down on first day of Swedish antipiracy law

This post was updated at 2:30 p.m. PDT with new information about Internet traffic.

The same day a new antipiracy law went into effect in Sweden, Internet traffic took a dive and five audio book publishers went after an alleged illegal file sharer in court.

The so-called IPRED law, which went into effect Wednesday, requires Internet service providers to reveal subscribers' Internet Protocol addresses to copyright holders in cases where a court finds ample evidence of illegal activity.

As of 2 p.m. local time Wednesday in Sweden, Internet traffic was down about 30 percent from the day … Read more

Google settles lawsuit over AdWords budget limits

Google has settled a lawsuit filed by advertisers who claimed they were charged for more ads through the AdWords system than they had agreed to pay for.

Under the settlement, two named plaintiffs will each receive $20,000, other marketers will get ad credits and Google agreed to pay the plaintiffs' lawyers more than $5 million, according to MediaPost.

The lawsuit, filed in 2005 in Santa Clara Superior Court in California, named as plaintiffs printing company CLRB Hanson Industries of Minnesota and Howard Stern of New Jersey (no relation to the radio personality). It alleged that Google misrepresented what constitutes … Read more