filters

The company that operates the LimeWire file-sharing software continues to maneuver in an effort to save the company from a potential court-ordered closure but time is slipping away.

Two weeks ago, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood handed a major legal victory to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which filed a copyright lawsuit against the Lime Wire company in 2006. She ruled that Lime Group, parent of LimeWire software maker Lime Wire, and founder Mark Gorton are liable for copyright infringement. Lime Group and Gorton could be required to pay hundreds of millions in damages and legal experts … Read more

Facebook is taking a lot of heat — again — about failing to protect the privacy of its users. (See Caroline McCarthy's The Social blog for a recap of the service's most-recent security gaffes.)

No matter what safety precautions Facebook and other social networks and Web sites take, eventually somebody's private data will become public, whether due to human error or a successful hack attack. Either way, your Web activities and the personal information you post to an online profile may be viewed by strangers, regardless of the account's security settings.

There are ways to minimize the risk … Read more

Some people choose lottery numbers randomly, or they play numbers that are meaningful to them, like loved ones' birthdays. Other people are more methodical and calculating (no pun intended), and for those people, there are programs like PowerLotto5. This software allows users to perform a variety of different analyses on previous winning lottery numbers, ostensibly helping to predict the numbers that are most likely to win in the future.

PowerLotto5 is definitely geared toward people who have at least some familiarity with statistics and who like to geek out on numbers. There is a Help file with a glossary, but … Read more

Announcing our very first not-even-remotely sanctioned by the legal department video creation contest: make us an awesome video in which Steve Jobs and the Predator work out who has prior art on swipe-to-unlock. We will reward the awesomest video with a Buzz Out Loud ceramic travel mug. Oh, and Google turns off its filters in China ... briefly.

Google turns off filter in China http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china-update.html http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-23/google-said-to-have-made-no-progress-in-two-month-china-dispute.html http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/interview-sergey-brin-on-googles-china-gambit/… Read more

There are any number of ways to childproof your PC, to rope off the objectionable areas of the Internet. But what about the kids' iPhones and iPod Touches? Safari offers no parental controls to speak of, no filtering or monitoring or search guards.

Enter Mobicip Safe Browser ($4.99), which offers a familiar Web interface, but with a raft of protections designed to keep kids safe.

The app looks and functions almost exactly like Safari, so there's almost no learning curve for kids already accustomed to the built-in browser (which, FYI, you can lock out by venturing into Settings &… Read more

The Web has such a witty way of bringing the realities of life into the forefront of public thought.

Who can, therefore, not feel a sublime level of sympathy for Canada's National History Society? No, not because Canada's history might seem like a drift from one sleepy century to another. Canada is an exciting place.

No, please feel for your Canadian cousins because the society's magazine, one that celebrates so much that is decent and sensible and, well, Canadian, is being forced by a tsunami of childish smuttiness to change its name.

The magazine, you see, enjoys … Read more

Mandatory ISP filtering legislation will be introduced in Australia around the middle of 2010, after which there will be a one-year period to implement and activate the filtering technology.

The Australian federal government on Tuesday announced it will introduce amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act, which will by 2011 require all ISPs to block refused-classification-rated material hosted on overseas servers.

As part of the new legislation, the government intends to explore what additional process could be implemented around how Web sites are added to the government's "Refused Classification" (RC) list.

The obvious contender for the new RC … Read more

Cool Music Record Edit Station is a multifeatured program that allows users to record and edit audio files. Although it may seem overwhelming to the beginner, its many options are sure to please more-advanced users.

The program's interface is generally well-organized, but it contains a lot of small buttons that give it a slightly cluttered appearance. Fortunately, mouse-over tool tips reveal each button's function. Once an audio file is loaded into the program, either from the user's computer or by making a new recording, the program displays a waveform view of the data. From there, users can … Read more

Google has long allowed parents a SafeSearch filtering setting that keeps kids from using the search engine to find inappropriate sites like those with explicit sexual images or text.

The problem was that kids could easily change those settings.

Starting Wednesday, however, the company is allowing parents to lock those settings to make it harder (though not impossible) for kids to bypass the settings.

To change the settings, the parent will have to log into his or her Google account and enter a password. Once the settings have been changed, the Google search engine will change in appearance to indicate … Read more