via the Journal Sentinel:

"Back in the roaring '90s, digital luminaries declared that businesses either go online or out of business. This week, metro Milwaukee debuts on the Internet.

"The Milwaukee 7, a relatively new economic development organization that spans seven counties, is putting the finishing touches on ChooseMilwaukee.com, a $200,000 site that's meant to beam flashy graphics and reams of southeastern Wisconsin data to a global audience of potential investors and expansion-minded industries.

"Though it might be arriving late, it intends to arrive with a splash. The Web portal is set to go live by Wednesday, in time for the next quarterly meeting of the M-7's board, and will include a tool that Milwaukee has never seen before: interactive maps that zero in on available land, warehouses, offices or factories, cataloged according to specifications typed in by companies that might be looking to expand in the Midwest.

"From there, the maps zoom in and out. Aerial images from satellites pop up alongside conventional street-level photos of each prospective location. The site recombines the data with analysis of local income levels, business competition, worker skills and education demographics of the population within any chosen radius of any of the sites. It shows what percentage finished college and how many got through high school.

"It even tells out-of-towners how many inches of snow fall on Milwaukee in a typical winter [53], while touting the metro area’s commuting times, arts scene and quality-of-life assets.

…

"If a showy Web page is enough to hook the attention of a Chinese or French multinational, the M-7 aims to reel them in with its Resource Center—an auditorium in downtown Milwaukee with a wall-size, high-definition screen that barrages out-of-town delegations with videos, maps, data and images. After a virtual tour of possible sites, Resource Center visitors are meant to leave with an armload of customized reports on the places they can visit, and possibly find cars and drivers waiting outside to show them around.

"The Resource Center also opens for business Wednesday, in time for the M-7 board meeting. And while the Web site might be an effort to play catch-up, the Resource Center has the potential to put Milwaukee near the front of the curve."

→ read the entire article

[ welcome to the matrix, right? while the labs has yet to enter second life [hell, we struggle enough with the first one], did you know that reuters has opened a bureau in second life? ]

via GameSpot news:

At the end of March, Second Life had 165,000 "residents," and now it boasts more than 1 million. But just like in the real world, as the population grows, so do the crime statistics. There have been a series of phishing scams, last week a copybot threatened the intellectual property created for the game, and now a rapidly replicating worm has briefly closed the online world to visitors.

(more…)

Basically, don't let your bank foist one of these cards on you. Stick with the swipe!

via the New York Times:

Tom Heydt-Benjamin tapped an envelope against a black plastic box connected to his computer. Within moments, the screen showed a garbled string of characters that included this: fu/kevine, along with some numbers.

Mr. Heydt-Benjamin then ripped open the envelope. Inside was a credit card, fresh from the issuing bank. The card bore the name of Kevin E. Fu, a computer science professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who was standing nearby. The card number and expiration date matched those numbers on the screen.

The demonstration revealed potential security and privacy holes in a new generation of credit cards—cards whose data is relayed by radio waves without need of a signature or physical swiping through a machine. Tens of millions of the cards have been issued, and equipment for their use is showing up at a growing number of locations, including CVS pharmacies, McDonald's restaurants and many movie theaters.

→ read the entire article
→ Vulnerabilities in First-Generation RFID-enabled Credit Cards. Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin, Daniel V. Bailey, Kevin Fu, Ari Juels, and Tom O'Hare [.PDF]

via the New York Times:

Steven A. Ballmer, the chief executive of Microsoft, has his hands full. The next version of the Windows operating system, Vista, is finally about to arrive—years late and clouded by doubts that it might violate antitrust rules in Europe.

→ read the entire [short] interview

via the New York Times:

The Federal Communications Commission delayed voting yesterday on AT&T's $80 billion takeover of BellSouth for the second time this week, because the two Democratic commissioners declined to make a decision until public hearings were held. The vote has now been rescheduled for November 3rd.

"Given the limited analysis from our leading antitrust authorities, it is all the more imperative that we now employ an open process to fully involve all affected parties, including the applicants, in order to get the public and expert review that is otherwise lacking," the Democratic commissioners wrote in a letter to the FCC chairman, Kevin J. Martin.

So, let the FCC know what you think about this merger and how you feel about net neutrality!

→ read the entire story
→ learn what it's all about

On 15 November 2006, during UW-Milwaukee's GIS Day, schiller labs will be teaching a hands-on workshop on Google mashups. Here's what you need to know:

Internet GIS: Google Maps + Mashups
15 November 2006 . 1:30 pm–4:00 pm
Lubar Hall N234A
After a brief introduction to mashups [web applications that combine content from more than one source], learn how to create your own Google Maps mashup. You'll be amazed at how fast and easy it is!
free [registration required]

we hope to see you there!

[[ Technorati Profile ]]

Mega-Merger vs. Internet Freedom
But there is a growing glimmer of hope. Since Wednesday, when the DoJ passed on the deal, more than 20,000 Free Press and SavetheInternet.com activists have sent letters asking for a Net Neutrality condition to be placed on the merger. Two of the four commissioners who will vote, Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, have indicated that they will support this as part of any merger. But they still need strong public support to prevail.
→ read more

A Growing Free for All [New York Times]
That leaves the Federal Communications Commission. The commission has scheduled a meeting to discuss the merger today. It should take a long, hard look at the deal, and the overall trend toward consolidation in the telecommunications industry. There are strong arguments that competition with cable companies and Internet phone services have changed the playing field. But the commissioners should pursue the question thoroughly rather than wielding a rubber stamp as the Justice Department sometimes appears to. They must think first about protecting consumers, while bearing in mind that bigger is not always better.
→ read more

Will FCC In-Fighting Kill the AT&T BellSouth Merger? [ComputerWorld]
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin never saw a mega-merger he didn't like, but the Democrats on the FCC may be able to squash the AT&T BellSouth merger, or at least force the FCC to add consumer-friendly provisions to the deal.
→ read more

Bill Moyers on Broadband, Digital Divide, Net Neutrality
Moyers on America features an episode on The Net at Risk: Airing next week in the U.S. [check your local listings], this episode—one of three in this series airing the same week—looks at the U.S. approach to the Internet and broadband, and why we're lagging so far behind the rest of the developed world.
→ read more

The Justice Department today rubber stamped the $78 billion merger of AT&T and BellSouth—deserting its post as the public's shield against corporate monopolies.

The merger now goes to the Federal Communications Commission for final approval. The deal would effectively resurrect the Ma Bell monopoly that ruled U.S. communications for nearly a century.

The merger of AT&T and BellSouth would create a network behemoth that controls nearly half of all telephone land lines in the United States. But the new AT&T presents a far greater threat.

Under the rule of CEO Ed Whitacre, the company is leading the effort to gut Net Neutrality—the longstanding principle that prevents phone companies from controlling what you do, where you go and what you see on the Internet.

Soon all digital media—telephone, TV, radio and the Web—will enter homes via a single broadband connection. Whitacre is trying to control this "pipe"—and the billions of dollars at stake—by erecting new Internet toll booths and discriminating against Web sites that can't afford their new fees.

If the FCC doesn't place any conditions on the mega-merger, nothing would prevent the new AT&T from taking away the free and open Internet that has fostered unprecedented economic innovation and democratic participation.

The good news is that we have some allies at the FCC. Two of the four commissioners who will vote on the merger have indicated that they will support Net Neutrality conditions as part of any merger. But they need strong public support to prevail.

Tell the FCC—No AT&T Merger without Net Neutrality!

For more information on the AT&T-BellSouth merger, please visit http://www.freepress.net/att/.

For another take on the deal, watch freepress' exclusive YouTube interview with Richard P. Merryweather, president and CEO of CT&T Com:
Part I: "The Merger and Me"
Part II: "Money Well Spent"

via the New York Times:

Yahoo's Growth Being Eroded by New Rivals. 11 October 2006. In recent months Yahoo has suffered some embarrassing setbacks in its sales of both display and Web search advertising.

Dot-Com Boom Echoed in Deal to Buy YouTube. 10 October 2006. A profitless Web site started by three 20-somethings after a late-night dinner party is sold for more than a billion dollars, instantly turning dozens of its employees into paper millionaires. It sounds like a tale from the late 1990's dot-com bubble, but it happened yesterday.

Adding On to the House of Google. 10 October 2006. Having pieced together a rapidly multiplying set of products, Google's leaders have a new concern. Call it Google sprawl.