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We heard from Mahrokh the other day about Snowden's email provider Lavabit shutting down -- turns out they've come back with a program called "Dark Mail." By the way, did you know that the email state employees (such as faculty like me who work at state-funded universities like GMU) are all technically public records? As long as the email isn't covered by student privacy acts like FERPA, anyone can request to see my GMU email because it's a public record. Technically.

wow, this is a great a article! I was actually thinking about what they were going to do after Lavabit and Silent Circle both closed their e-mail systems, especially since Zimmerman was not one of those people who seemed to stop coming up with new ideas. Its interesting to see how this new technology plays out.

As the title says, this is the oldest site online. It uses hypertext and uses links within the text to browse information. It is a very basic, black and white site that really shows how far we have come since then.

That is great, Stephanie! ibiblio.org is one of my favorite sites -- it's run by the library and information school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and it has a fair amount of tech history. It's similar in some ways to archive.org. I'm curious: how did you find it?

I actually found it through a BBC article a few months back. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22652675 The site I posted is not the original but is a copy of the original that Tim Berners-Lee kept.

(A little outdated, 2012) This is an interesting article about possible international telecommunication regulations; and how countries have been preparing for The World Conference on International Telecommunications for months "behind closed doors". Although the idea seems easy enough, I do not believe that all the involved nations could reach a single standard when it comes to rights of speech and censorship. Even more so, if a treaty was made how would this effect the laws and citizens of the individual countries who already have laws in place?

This article gives a definition of Digital Restrictions Management in terms that everyone can understand. More importantly, it teaches us why we should avoid using business that use DRM and how to do so.

Huh, interesting that they say the "R" stands for "Restrictions" -- I always heard "Rights." Guess either makes sense.

Just a news in how tumblr is being used to spread message about Russia's Anti-gay policies and how the company is being drawn into a fight. The company is trying to gain equal rights for everyone through tumblr, but it might causing more damage than it intends.

Okay, here's a picture that roughly approximates how people used to interact with the Internet before there was a Web. All through text, all through a CLI (command-line interface). I started grad school in 1992 and this is pretty much what we had. This too is what that 1988 Washington Post article is thinking of when it talks about Internet.

Forbes tips on how to make a great presentation

This website provides a list of 20 shortcuts you can use google for. This list explains how you can maximize the google search engine in order to find a wide variety of information quickly. Enables the user to use google to answer everyday questions easily.

For the math-phobic out there, don't let the word scare you. An "algorithm" is nothing more than a set of instructions, just like a recipe or how-to book.And the Internet relies on many, many algorithms in order to function properly. When you type search terms into Google, it follows a very complex algorithm to determine which results to show you.

We all know the acronyms "lol" and "lmao" and sometimes just use "haha." This article explores how people from other countries express laughter over the Internet.

This is a slide show about the differences between Apple computers and computers that are deemed "PCs". It compares everything from design to software. I thought it was interesting to see how people see these computers and what the actual difference between them were.

I see that both you and Marion have shared links from HowStuffWorks.com -- that site usually has pretty good information, especially for basic stuff. I find it interesting that they're classified as an "entertainment" site; they pay people a little (not much) to write the articles, and then they sell ads on the content. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_stuff_works I know a guy who works there -- Jonathan Strickland. Great guy and great podcaster.

Interesting, Taylor, although I wish that article had a date on it. I bet it's a couple of years old: both Macs and PCs change a lot. Still, those differences still apply. Technically, of course, Macs are PCs, since PC stands for "Personal Computer," which a Mac is. But what can you do -- language is slippery.

Video about one person's take on what libraries will be used for in the future. Very interesting opinion.

Hmm, interesting. The service she describes where libraries sell books is fairly rare, still, although it's made possible by a thing called an Espresso Book Machine that prints copied of ebooks: http://www.ondemandbooks.com/ I hate when I can't figure out the date of things. I even looked at the source code to try to find out when that video was recorded, but I couldn't. I did discover that the girl in the video (I love her sweater!) is one of the co-hosts of another How Stuff Works podcast called "Stuff You Missed in History Class" at http://shows.howstuffworks.com/stuff-you-missed-in-history-class-podcast.htm -- that might be useful! Certainly relevant. :) Their latest episode is about an 18th-century "Vampire Panic" in New England. Sign me up.

I listen to that podcast all the time!

The idea of open access to scholarly journals seems to be a big debate and this article talks about how publishers make millions of dollars off of research and peer reviews that are done for free. It also talks about Aaron Swartz who led the movement for allowing access to journals by basically "stealing" them and sharing them.

This is the Wikipedia page dedicated to the Dewey Decimal Classes. I thought this page was laid out very well and informative. It helps to show categories and numbers and allows individuals who don't know much about the Dewey Decimal system to gain valuable information into how it works.

This article the the NY Times explains how the Obama administration is making sure everyone has access/knowledge to a computer

Hey guys, I thought this would help with the 5 comments and questions we have to submit, its an interesting way to learn how to give constructive criticism. I was having problems with this earlier.

This link discusses how the overall weight of the electrons in motion that make up the Internet weigh roughly 50 grams; about as much as a strawberry. It's interesting to discuss the "weight" of something that never really seems to be tangible.

This article talks about how the Internet's naming and numbering system regulated by ICANN will be having a conference about "Internet governance, principles and proposed frameworks for global Internet cooperation, and a roadmap for future Internet governance challenges."

Article by CBS news explains how schools in California are replacing textbooks for tablets