The New York Times has made no small amount of effort on being a forward looking digital media company. Their site is loaded with special web-only features, blogs, and cool infographics. However, sometimes good ideas can also be found by looking to the past. So, the Times is attempting to replicate the experience of browsing the newspaper with their new article skimmer.
February 16, 2009
February 10, 2009
Measurement Lab
Google-sponsored M-Lab or Measurement Labs is a project that provide tools and research on Internet connectivity. Currently there are three tools in the suite, a general Network Diagnostic Tool for detecting issue that might limit network connection speed. Glastnost can help you determine whether your ISP is throttling or blocking BitTorrent traffic. The also provide a tool for Network Path and Application Diagnosis. More tools are in the works.
The tools are all Java and fairly easy to use. I gave Glasnost a try and here is what I saw (apparently, my ISP does not block BitTorrent traffic at this time.)
Is BitTorrent traffic on a well-known BitTorrent port (6887) throttled?
The BitTorrent upload (seeding) worked. Our tool was successful in uploading data using the BitTorrent protocol.
Is BitTorrent traffic on a non-standard BitTorrent port (10015) throttled?
Is TCP traffic on a well-known BitTorrent port (6887) throttled?
They also provide a readout of who is blocking the traffic and where. Most of the reported blocking (US) is occuring in Cox and Comcast controlled networks.
August 1, 2008
Times outside scoop on trolls
The New York Times is unusually tardy in how late to the game it is on the story of Internet Trolls. Predictably enough the author of the article got trolled himself by an Internet con artist going by the handle “Weev.”
Calling trolling a growing phenomenon is pretty stupid as just about any half-educated loser with a keyboard has probably engaged in some amount of trolling at this point. Furthermore, the author misses the point about trolls entirely by giving them a mouthpiece in a major newpaper. Here’s a hint: they do it for the attention, not the ‘lulz,’ and you fed the trolls. Internet sociopath and famewhore Jason Fortuny does not need any more exposure than he’s already got. Fortuny’s “motivation” is that of a stunted, maladjusted adolescent lashing out at an unfair world by creating grief for everybody around him. More on his pathetic background is avialable at “The Secret Life of Jason Fortuny.”