censorship

The developer of a software tool to help Iranians get around their government's Internet restrictions has withdrawn the program in response to questions about its security.

Haystack said it had halted further testing of the program in Iran while it conducts a review. "If you have a copy of the test program, please refrain from using it," it said in a post on its Web site.

Haystack, which runs on Windows (2000 and up), OS X (10.4 and up), and most Linux distributions, appears to the user as a normal HTTP proxy. It claims to "… Read more

One of the most popular pieces of art at Burning Man two weeks ago was Bliss Dance, a 40-foot-tall metal sculpture of a nude dancing woman. Think Michelangelo's David, only female and lit up spectacularly at night.

A friend of mine, Dave Simon, posted one of his photos of the sculpture on his Facebook page in an album he set to be public. On Tuesday, after the photo had been up for five days, Simon got an e-mail from Facebook saying that the image was removed for violating terms of use, which ban posting photos that contain nudity.

"… Read more

Happy belated Labor Day! Today's show title comes courtesy of 404 listener bitMorph3r, who spotted yours truly riding my bike through the background shot in an episode of Michio Kaku's Sci-Fi Science. Check out the video clip here, and thanks again to bitMorph3r's hawk eye for the shot!

On today's episode of The 404 Podcast we say goodbye to Craigslist Adult Services, revisit the Duke Nuken Forever saga, argue over the new iTunes logo, show you how to jailbreak a PS3 with a TI-84 graphing calculator, and get scratch silly over the bedbug infestation sweeping the Google office in New York City.

After much controversy, the Craigslist finally blocked access to its "adult services" section over the weekend. Head over to Craigslist.org and you'll now see an ugly black "CENSORED" bar covering the location of the original link.

Founder Craig Newmark is so far silent on the issue, and it's unclear at this point if the change is temporary or permanent, but Interpervs can still get their paid freak on using other Web services that you can research in Gawker's latest "Post-Craigslist Guide to Buying Sex Online."

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced a new iTunes logo to go along with iTunes version 10, but not everyone is satisfied with the redesign. One user, Josh Kopac, decided to take it upon himself to e-mail Jobs and express his distaste, saying he "enjoyed the presentation today. But...this new iTunes logo really sucks..." to which Steve replied, "We disagree." Sometimes two words is all it takes to dead-end an argument!

After 14 years of painful waiting, Duke Nukem Forever might finally see the light of day after all. According to Jeff's report, 2K Games recently announced that Gearbox Software is taking the rights to its development, which is supposedly in the final stages. As usual, Jeff is skeptical that the game will come out before the end of the century, especially after all the controversy and drama surrounding its release. Check out this article in Wired for the full story.

All these stories coming your way on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast! Enjoy!

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has offered the Indian government information and tools to help government agencies monitor communications sent via the BlackBerry's email and messaging services, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

The Journal said that according to the minutes of a July 26 meeting between RIM and government officials--part of an ongoing series of negotiations--the company said it had "a setup to help...security agencies in tracking the messages in which security agencies are interested."

The Journal also reported that an Indian-penned summary of one of the discussions said RIM had agreed it could provide … Read more

In a preliminary agreement, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has decided to allow the government of Saudi Arabia access to BlackBerry users' messages, in order to avoid a ban on the device in the country, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

The AP quoted an official at the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission as saying that the deal between RIM and the government would likely involve placing a BlackBerry server inside the country to enable the Saudis to monitor data.

RIM did not respond to a call from CNET for comment by publication time.

The Saudi government said earlier this week … Read more

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is supposedly working with officials in Saudi Arabia to make sure that BlackBerry users don't lose access to mobile e-mail, several news agencies reported Friday.

Government officials in Saudi Arabia announced earlier this week that they were ordering the country's three wireless operators to block BlackBerry messenger service. Officials said RIM's stringent security does not comply with policies of Saudi Arabia and presented a security risk.

BlackBerry Messenger service was expected to stop on Friday. So far, the Saudi telecommunications regulator, known as the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), has not … Read more

The U.S. and Canadian governments are getting involved with a dispute between some foreign governments and Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, over those countries' restrictions of the device.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she would try to help broker a resolution between the two sides.

"We are taking time to consult and analyze the full range of interests and issues at stake because we know that there is a legitimate security concern, but there's also a legitimate right of free use and access," The Wall Street Journal reported … Read more

A new Google Q&A page hosted in Hong Kong and directed toward China was reportedly inaccessible to Chinese users on Tuesday.

Many users in mainland China reported receiving error messages when trying to view the page, according to Reuters. A Google representative told Reuters that there were no technical problems with the page and suggested contacting the Chinese government.

Launched in late July, the beta of the new Q&A page invites Chinese users to ask questions and receive links to Web pages with possible answers. But apparently some of the questions may have triggered concerns within … Read more

Google's resolution of its Net presence in China seems to have reached a stable point, at least for the time being.

A Chinese government official said Tuesday the country is satisfied with Google's resolution of how to balance a presence in China with censorship requirements.

"Google agreed...that it will respect China's laws and regulations," Zhang Feng, an official with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told members of the press, according to an Agence France-Presse report. "That is to say, it will not provide any information that will endanger China's … Read more