Miscellaneous

Week in review: Facebook's about-face

Facebook users take their privacy very seriously--and the social-networking site received that message loud and clear.

Facebook created a firestorm of controversy earlier this week as word spread that it had changed a longstanding but little-publicized claim to an "irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license" for promotional efforts--which would no longer expire if a member deleted his or her Facebook account.

Facebook reorganized its terms of service on February 11. In a blog post, company legal representative Suzie White provided an explanation. "We used to have several different documents that outlined what people could and … Read more

Podcast: Privacy advocate, Facebook official speak out

As is now well known, Facebook angered some of its users and some privacy advocates when it recently changed its terms of service to give itself the right to permanently retain user information even if a user deletes an account.

That policy was rescinded after an uproar and a likely federal complaint from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a Washington-based privacy watchdog group.

To try to better understand the issue, I spoke with EPIC's executive director, Marc Rotenberg, as well as Facebook's chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly.

Microlending site now pays 5 percent

I've long been a fan of microfinance or microlending where a small loan can make a big difference. To date, I've made several small investments via both Microplace.com and Kiva.org. And, in addition to doing good, I'm doing well. Kiva doesn't pay interest but it does make it easy to give gift certificates. Microplace, in the past, paid up to 3 percent interest, but Tuesday it announced a fund that's paying 5 percent.

Have you checked bank and CD rates lately? Five percent is great compared to the rates paid by most banks … Read more

Podcast: Zmanda offers cloud backup for small businesses

Zmanda CEO Chander Kant tells CBS News & CNET Technology Analyst Larry Magid how his company is providing online "cloud" data backup services for small businesses. Rather than store the data itself, Zmanda is contracting with Amazon's S3 Simple Storage Service to store its customers' data.

The company sells an easy to use Windows program that connects directly with Amazon's S3 backup servers. The software costs $50 and the storage costs 20 cents per gigabyte per month.

Devices, 4G helping Sprint CEO lead comeback?

You might recognize Sprint CEO Dan Hesse from those black-and-white commercials. When I met with him last week at a hotel bar in Oakland, Calif., two women at the next table certainly did. They treated him like a celebrity.

I wouldn't go that far, but he does appear to have a good handle on the mobile industry and what Sprint--the No. 3 cell phone service provider behind AT&T and Verizon--needs to do. And he knows more than a little something about phone companies, having spent 23 years at AT&T, including a stint as CEO of … Read more

Week in review: Valentines for green tech

Cupid was sweet this week on the environment, with Congress earmarking billions for energy in the economic stimulus plan, a contract awarded for a big solar power plant in Southern California, and even Google crashing the smart-grid party.

The $789 billion economic stimulus package, which the House approved Friday afternoon, includes tens of billions of dollars for energy through direct government investments and tax incentives. A vote in the Senate is expected Friday evening.

Overall, there is $50 billion for energy programs, much of it focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy, and $20 billion in tax incentives for renewable … Read more

Google lets programmers sell Android apps

The Android Market, Google's online repository of applications for the T-Mobile G1 and succeeding devices using the search giant's mobile-phone operating system, now lets organizations charge money for their software.

"I'm pleased to announce that Android Market is now accepting priced applications from US and UK developers," said Eric Chu in a blog post Friday. "Initially, priced applications will be available to end users in the US starting mid next week."

Google gives programmers 70 percent of Android app revenue, with the remainder going to wireless service carriers, minus billing settlement fees. Buyers … Read more

Time for Unix nerds to celebrate 1234567890 Day

It's won't be the epochalypse of 2038, but 3:31 p.m. PST on Friday offers a moment notable enough for some Unix fans to raise a toast.

That's when Unix computer clocks will reach the time of 1234567890--1.2 billion seconds elapsed from January 1, 1970, the official beginning of the Unix epoch. The clock is used not just by Unix, but also by Linux, Java, JavaScript, Mac OS X, and various other technologies.

Various Web sites exist to help mark the occasion. Cool Epoch Countdown, which actually counts up, is the first I saw. 1234567890 Day … Read more

Linux Silverlight implementation goes live

Moonlight 1.0, the first open-source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight rich media technology, has gone live.

Moonlight forms part of the Novell-led Mono project, the lead developer of which is Miguel de Icaza. De Icaza announced the full release of Moonlight 1.0, which went into public beta at the start of December, in a blog post on Wednesday.

However, according to a Twitter post, or "tweet," made by de Icaza on Wednesday: "Moonlight 1.0 actually shipped on 20 January for the Obama inauguration [but Novell's] PR/marketing [employees] were just not notified." … Read more