pushes

The United States has asked the World Trade Organization to create a panel to settle a dispute with the European Union over tariffs on high-tech items.The request is an escalation in an increasingly bitter dispute over the WTO's Information Technology Agreement (ITA), which abolished duties on a number of high-tech goods from July 1997 to encourage trade.

The FCC's (read Chairman Kevin Martin's) plan to set aside spectrum for a free, nationwide broadband network is also on yet another path for failure when eventually it is scrutinized by the courts.  

More money spent on gas and groceries means less for luxuries. In the past that meant more people going to the movies and picking up used musical instruments. Now, Microsoft wants to be an entertainment outlet, serving games, videos, and oh yes, advertising.

Yahoo this, Microsoft that - it's enough to make you move to China.  Or at least look at China-centric news, in which Baidu is generating headlines for both succeeding financially and pushing its own version of Wikipedia.

IT people, please don't blame us.  We neither conducted nor responded to this security and compliance survey.  But the survey's results indicate that some people (and perhaps a certain search giant) feel you're not overly effective or efficient.

Put your coffee down, you'll spit it. Facebook cheerleaders, from within what must be a social networking tunnel (or cave?), have transformed themselves into prostrate worshipers, transubstantiating reason to whatever the digital equivalent is of 72 virgins.

Brian Retkin of domain registrar Dotworlds had been criticized for offering .USA domains for sale and spamming people with sales pitches after September 11, 2001. He has claimed Google's links to this criticism amounts to defamation.

There's most likely a balance between no regulation and too much regulation, and the current Democratic Congress is walking that line. No one would doubt the potential harm caused by "rogue" Web-dealers, but Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-Vt.) tightening grip on Internet service providers should at least cause one to step back a bit to look at it.