All Laurie Allen wanted to do was make sure her future son-in-law wasn't left out when his future bride was due to be buried in baby shower gifts, buying him a digital camera. Save the mother-in-law jokes, folks: the poor Grafton, Wisconsin woman learned the hard way the camera wasn't new, and there were some nude photographs still stored inside the camera's memory. "I put the batteries into the camera, turned it on, and began to scroll through the pictures that were saved on it," daughter Jenny told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "My poor mother was so embarrassed." Police are looking to determine whether the camera's previous owner intentionally left the pictures in the camera...
Google intends to add something to their AdWords system you probably didn't expect: banners or image advertisements, though it isn't yet clear just where the search giant will show them. "At this time, we won?t show image ads on Google," the company told SearchEngineJournal.com. "The initial launch of image ads is focused on sites already showing graphical ads. Because Google image ads are targeted specifically to a page?s content, advertisers showing ads on these sites would realize the greatest benefit."...
The showing will also be based on relevancy, Google said, on behalf of the advertiser better reaching their prospects with effective ads. "[We are] simply combining images-which attract considerable attention-with our proven AdWords targeting technology," Google said. "Because of this, we can offer advertisers yet another highly efficient way to reach the right customers. In addition, we can improve the variety, quality, and relevance of ads a user sees."...
Port St. Lucie, Florida may think it's improving the ranks of the city work force by suspending a mid-level network administrator 10 days for accessing adult Websites and downloading adult videos on city time and dime. James Abt, whose doings were discovered during an audit and who may have been warned about such doings earlier, was allowed to forfeit 80 hours' accrued vacation time rather than sit out the suspension, the city's human resources director told reporters...
Speaking of banning the filth actual or alleged, the Leicester Mercury's campaign to clean up cyberspace has attracted almost 1,000 Britons, after the newspaper published an expose showing it was only too easy for children to "gain access to sickening Internet sites," including graphic sex abuse and rape and violence. The expose said about 71,000 children in Leicestershire "were at risk" of seeing "horrific" Websites regularly because of unprotected computers, and the newspaper even wants the government to toughen laws on "vile and extreme material."...
A Rochester chief of pediatric emergency is in trouble for possessing child porn. Dr. Julius Goepp, who ran pediatric emergency medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital, has been charged with possessing and receiving over 100 child porn images as a subscriber to a child porn-featuring Website known as Lust Gallery claiming to have a "secret Lolitas" archive of models 14 and under, according to the complaint...
But enough about the disgrace of cyberspace. Let's talk about the grace of cyberspace. Like BellSouth being expected to roll out Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service for corporate customers as soon as May 13, initially in their nine-state southeastern U.S. territory. Lucent Technologies will deliver the equipment under a three-year deal and the package will allow users to work a wide range of telephone, fax, and e-mail services, and even set up conference calls, on personal computers linked to data networks...
On the other hand, Australia isn't exactly feeling gracious about something reaching mobile telephony: namely, adult images. The government has ordered the Department of Communications to impose new controls covering SMS messages and Internet images on mobile phones, with the Internet Industry Association saying new mobile phones need attention in particular: "We will have solutions in place to protect families."...
And if you thought the Chinese were getting tough with Internet cafes and their accessibility to (ahem) "inappropriate" material, meet Vietnam. That Communist country isn't thrilled about cyberdissidents, either - and Netizens now have a pile of new policies and restrictions to deal with amidst a crackdown on cyberdissidents using the Web to protest the government. "IDs or passports are now required at Internet cafes just like at boarding gates for flights," a Vietnamese police officer told a newspaper...
And it isn't necessarily just what's left of the Communist world that thinks the cybercafes need to be kept in line. Now, Greece isn't quite ready to crack down on political debate, but they're not exactly crazy about Internet gambling - and, to prove it, they have begun raiding cybercafes where the access to cybergambling Websites is just a little too easy for the government's taste. In one such raid, law enforcement was said to have carted off 49 terminals and killing the monitors connected to them by attaching legal papers with hot red wax...
Meanwhile, back in the States, it's Heatter time - there's good news tonight: A new Nielsen survey says American consumers aren't letting a little thing like Internet fraud actual or alleged stop them from shopping in cyberspace. The researchers say a survey they did for eBay and PayPal showed online shoppers likely to increase their cybershopping in 2004, thanks to improved Net security and their own growing awareness of cyberfrauds and how to duck them. The survey was done in March and showed 51 percent of cybershoppers surveyed believe the Internet became safer to shop last year and was likely to become even more safe this year.
