1Gbps fiber for $70---in America? Yup. American ISPs have convinced us that Internet access is expensive---getting speeds of 100Mbps will set most people back by more than $100 a month, assuming the service is even available. Where I live in Chicago, Comcast's 105Mbps service goes for a whopping $199.95 ("premium installation" and cable modem not included). Which is why it was so refreshing to see the scrappy California ISP Sonic.net this week roll out its new 1Gbps, fiber-to-the-home service... for $69.99 a month. Ars Technica
Judge furious at "inexcusable" P2P lawyering, nukes subpoenas There are three quick steps to angering a federal judge: first, launch the country's largest file-sharing lawsuit against 23,322 anonymous defendants, even though most of them don't live where you filed the suit. Second, request "expedited discovery" in the case, allowing you to quickly secure the subpoenas necessary to go to Internet access providers and turn those 23,322 IP addresses into real names.Third, don't even bother to serve the subpoenas you just told the court were so essential to your case. Ars Technica
How a cheap graphics card could crack your password in under a second I was pointed in the direction of a blog posting talking about the use of GPU processors to launch brute-force attacks on passwords. GPUs are extremely good at this sort of workload, and the price/performance ratio has changed dramatically over the past few years. What might have seemed impossible even 36 months ago is now perfectly do-able on your desktop computer. PCPro
#gamedev: We need to aim higher ...Why is it that game developers are beginning to drown in a culture of fear, or more specifically, a fear of change? Is it because the gaming world has gone too corporate and is no longer exclusive to small teams of genius misfits and creative underdogs? Is it because the demographics of game players – once made up almost exclusively of teen boys – has widened to include nearly everyone from 5-50? AltDevBlogADay
Post a picture that 'causes emotional distress' and you could face jailtime in Tennessee Over the last few years, we've seen a troubling trend in various state laws which attempt to come up with ways to outlaw being a jerk online. Many of these are based on politicians and/or the public taking an emotional reaction to something bad happening after some does something online that angered someone else. Techdirt
Amazon sales tax: The battle, state by state Amazon is in the midst of a heated battle with states over whether it should be required to collect sales taxes. While this has been an ongoing debate, the dispute recently escalated as states look to recover deficits coming out of the recession. One way to do this would be through sales taxes. The Street
I.M.F. reports cyberattack led to 'very major breach' The International Monetary Fund, still struggling to find a new leader after the arrest of its managing director last month in New York, was hit recently by what computer experts describe as a large and sophisticated cyberattack whose dimensions are still unknown. The NY Times
9 Confessions of a former Geek Squad geek Consumerist reader K. recently ended his 4.5 year tenure as a Geek Squad member at Best Buy. And while he says that he considers his time there to be "generally a positive experience," K. did feel that there is some backstage info the public might want to know. The Consumerist
The checkered past of Groupon's chairman Groupon's largest shareholder and chairman, Eric Lefkofsky, has a back story investors might want to know. CNN
E3 2011 wrap-up VG Cats