By Jessica Roy 4/03 5:33pm

Crime and Punishment

(Screencap: YouTube)

Internet Commenters Help NYPD Track Down Brooklyn Subway Mugger

Yesterday a video of a 56-year-old woman being brutally mugged in the F train station in Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood went viral. The video shows a woman descending the stairs into the station before she is pushed up against a door and hit and kicked. The assailant then empties her purse, grabs some items and chases after her through the station. Though the crime occurred on March 9th, the NYPD released the video with the hopes that viewers would be able to help them ID the perp. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 1/21 1:08pm

Welcome Wagon

Cuba libre? (Photo: flickr.com/jodastephen)

Is Cuba Finally Getting Better, Faster Internet? Maybe!

Cuba certainly isn’t as isolated as North Korea, but Internet access has long been available only via satellite–meaning it’s expensive and slow as molasses  Email barely works; forget about a GIF-heavy Tumblr dashboard. It’s also largely limited to public spaces, like hotels targeting foreign tourists.

However, researchers say they’re seeing sparks of increased Internet connectivity Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 1/08 9:30am

Planet GOOG

sergey-brin-google-glasses

Get Your Internet On: Google Is Giving Free Wifi to Southwest Chelsea [UPDATED]

Give it up for GOOG, boys and girls: Later this morning, the search behemoth is expected to announce an initiative to blanket southwest Chelsea with free Wifi. That’ll mean easier access to the Internet for not just Chelsea Market shoppers and Google employees, but also residents of the NYCHA-run Fulton Houses and several local public schools.

Nice to see someone getting after that digital divide. Read More

By Jessica Roy 1/03 1:15pm

This Happened

(Photo: India Current Affairs)

Teen Drugs Her Parents’ Milkshakes So She Can Go on the Internet Past Curfew

Back in the early aughts, when this reporter’s parents were fast asleep, we’d take one of those 500 Free Hours of AOL CDs received in the mail every other day, unplug the phone line in our bedroom, and hook it up to our laptop so we could log on to saucy chat rooms and browse AOL Teen. Our parents, competent as they were, had no idea we spent half the night surfing a sluggish, largely harmless web.

We assumed teens these days–born with a smartphone glued to their mutant flesh–have it much easier, especially without having to muffle the sounds of dial-up. We were wrong.
 Read More

By Jessica Roy 10/24/12 2:56pm

CATS!

(Screencap: YouTube)

Here’s the First Cat Video Ever Recorded

The Los Angeles Times published an excellent piece today surveying the landcape of YouTube-famous cats, including the moody Henri, the box-loving Maru and Lil’ Bub, who just cannot keep his little tongue in his mouth. Buried in the middle of the article, however, is an interesting tidbit about the history of cat videos. Though the first was probably uploaded to the Internet during the latter half of the 20th century, the LA Times reports that the first-ever cat video was recorded by Thomas Edison, he of lightbulb fame. Read More

By Jessica Roy 10/02/12 3:43pm

Internet Wants to Be Free

(Photo: Maximum PC)

In Latest Attempt to Become the Most Hated Company Ever, Time Warner Plans to Charge a Monthly Modem Fee

When not pissing off the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Time Warner Cable execs apparently take to their evil lair to devise new schemes to wring every last penny out of their hapless customers. The latest pocket gouger? A monthly modem fee.

The New York Times reports that Time Warner is planning to charge a monthly fee of $3.95 to rent a modem from them. If you want to avoid paying the monthly fee, you can purchase a Time Warner-approved modem for $50-$137. Time Warner will then promise to set the modem up during the Harvest Moon but then not show up until the spring thaw. Read More

By Jessica Roy 8/28/12 9:53am

The Way We Live Now

(Photo: Digimegirl)

Project Urges People to Disconnect From the Internet for 24 Hours, Which Is Seriously Not That Hard, You Guys

Look, we are among the worst offenders of 24/7 digital connection. We rudely pull out our phone during dinner and we check our email when we wake up in the middle of the night and sometimes we think our Netflix queue *gets* us in a way no person ever has or will. But when it comes to disconnecting for 24 hours, putting that device in a drawer and going out and enjoying the sunshine? It’s not something we really fret over.

But perhaps we are in the minority. The Reconnect Project, which is planned for this Sunday, September 2, urges the 84 percent of people who said they couldn’t go 24 hours without their mobile device to disconnect for the day and reclaim their lives IRL. Read More

By Jessica Roy 2:46pm

Summer Fun

(Photo: Fan Pop)

Asses Now Equipped With Wifi

Just because you want to simulate living in ancient Galilee times doesn’t mean you won’t want to check your email while doing so. Kfar Kedem park in Israel has outfitted donkeys with wireless routers so that users can check into “My Ass” on Foursquare. Ah, ain’t the future grand?

By Jessica Roy 8/07/12 3:05pm

Summer Fun

12 Photos

And of course... GIFs.

Happy Birthday, Internet! We Would Like to Thank You For…

Wired pointed us to the fact that on this day in 1991, “the world wide web became publicly available for the first time.” Father of the Internet Tim Berners-Lee posted an introductory post to the alt.hypertext Usenet group on August 7, 1991, and all at once another world was born: one where we’d be able to see each other’s faces without being near them and join with like-minded people to geek out about shit and–of course–watch lots and lots of free porn. Read More