Thousands of websites, including some of the most popular, are going dark today to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is designed to thwart copyright infringement but that Web experts warn could threaten the functionality of the Internet.

Encyclopedia giant Wikipedia, popular news-sharing site reddit, browser pioneer Mozilla, photo-sharing favorite Twitpic and even ICanHazCheezburger.com are blocking access to content throughout Wednesday, symbolizing what the bill may allow content creators to do to sites they accuse of copyright infringement. Other websites, including Google, are expressing solidarity with the protests by featuring anti-SOPA content on home pages.

The online protests are being joined by a physical demonstration in New York City, where thousands of representatives from the city’s tech industry plan to demonstrate outside the offices of Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.),co-sponsors of the Senate version of SOPA, beginning at 12:30 p.m. As pressure has mounted, both have expressed willingness to compromise.

SOPA would give both the government and major corporations the power to shut down entire websites accused of copyright infringement with neither a trial nor a traditional court hearing. The legislation is aggressively backed by Hollywood movie studios and major record labels, along with several major news providers, including Fox News and NBC-Universal, which have largely shied away from coverage of the bill.

The burst of opposition to SOPA and its Senate companion, Protect IP (or PIPA, for short), has caught many lawmakers, who thought they were endorsing a fairly non-controversial anti-piracy bill with strong corporate support, off guard. Senate co-sponsors of the bill regrouped on Tuesday, huddling in the Capitol with major industry backers of the bill.

In December, HuffPost reported that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a Protect IP co-sponsor with deep ties to both Hollywood and the technology industry, thought disputes between two of her most prominent corporate constituencies had been worked out. After that story ran, Feinstein attempted to broker a compromise, calling both tech companies and film studios.

Walt Disney Co. President and CEO Bob Iger declined the invitation on behalf of content providers. “Hollywood did not feel that a meeting with Silicon Valley would be productive at this time,” said a spokesperson. The meeting took place with only tech companies present. Feinstein, once a reliable vote for the existing version of Protect IP, is now working hard to amend the bill, according to Senate Democratic aides.

But finding common ground is more difficult in this case than in most intra-corporate squabbles, because the two sides — or powerful elements within them, at least — have largely irreconcilable world views. One senior Senate aide said that the technology side consistently refuses to specify precise changes they want to the bill. Indeed, improving the bill would be counterproductive if the ultimate goal is killing it outright — which it certainly is for many elements of the anti-SOPA coalition.

“That’s a high-stakes risk,” said the senior aide, “because if they don’t have 41 votes, then what?”
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By pitting nearly the entire tech industry against corporate Capitol Hill insiders from Hollywood, SOPA has prompted a tremendous wave of lobbying in Washington, accompanied by a flood of campaign contributions ahead of the 2012 elections. More than 1,000 lobbyists are currently registered to juice lawmakers on the bill.

The proposed legislation has startled tech experts and free speech advocates, who warn that the anti-piracy tactics envisioned by the bill would bring about widespread censorship of legitimate content and hamper important cybersecurity measures.

“The solutions are draconian. There’s a bill that would require [Internet service providers] to remove URLs from the Web, which is also known as censorship last time I checked,” said Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt during a November speech.

The online blackout protests are rankling the Motion Picture Association of America, a lobbying group for the five biggest American film studios, which has lost significant support for its favorite bill in Washington over the past few months. MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd, a former Democratic senator from Connecticut and close friend of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), ripped the blackout in a Tuesday blog post, which tech advocates view as evidence that Hollywood is threatened by the effort.

“Some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns,” wrote Dodd, who represents News Corp., Time-Warner, Sony and Disney. “It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today.”

“This is a signal that Hollywood is really rattled by these protests and worried about where this bill is heading,” said Josh Levy, Internet campaign director for FreePress.org, a nonprofit media watchdog group.

Both the House and Senate versions of the anti-piracy bill have enjoyed bipartisan support from Hollywood-friendly lawmakers, but momentum has foundered of late. In December, lawmakers from both political parties in both chambers of Congress issued a strong statement opposing the piracy bills, proposing an alternative bill that included more government review of copyright infringement claims and kicked claim adjudication toward the U.S. International Trade Commission, responsible for policing international trade violations.

On Saturday, the Obama administration announced its opposition to the bill. Nevertheless, Reid said on Sunday that he still plans a vote. Senate staffers told HuffPost on Tuesday they expect the bill to hit the Senate floor on Monday afternoon.

The Senate bill is hemorrhaging support — the only question is whether it will lose so much that it will be unable to overcome a filibuster. On Friday, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), an official co-sponsor, declared, “I would not vote for final passage of PIPA, as currently written, on the Senate floor.” He cited “serious concerns raised by my constituents” as grounds for his reversal.
The same day, six Republican senators, including two of Protect IP’s original co-sponsors, Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), sent a letter to Reid urging him not to proceed with a vote.

Sens. Tom Udall (D-Colo.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who hadn’t taken formal formal positions, are now officially opposed to Protect IP. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) also voiced opposition to the bills on his Facebook page Tuesday.

“I’m going to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA,” the post reads, although as a senator, Brown only has the power to vote on the Senate version, PIPA, not the House version, SOPA. “The Internet is too important to our economy.”

Other opponents of the piracy bill are preparing to filibuster. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) plan to take the unusual — and largely symbolic — step of actually speaking on the Senate floor indefinitely to prevent the bill from coming up for a vote. Typically, when legislation cannot muster the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster, its opponents simply declare victory and leave the chamber for further negotiations. But passions are so high on Protect IP and SOPA that Wyden and Moran plan to drive home the depth of their opposition by spending hours denouncing the legislation, according to a Wyden staffer.

Under current law, companies that believe that their material has been improperly excerpted can request that the infringing material be removed, but cannot demand that entire websites be shuttered. Hollywood and other content providers aggressively police the web looking for such potential “takedowns,” and frequently request that legitimate material be removed.

Reddit general manager Erik Martin worked for an independent film production firm prior to joining the tech world, and frequently received bogus requests to remove his company’s material from YouTube.

“We would get a lot of erroneous . . . takedown notices, even on our own trailers for our own films put up on YouTube, because keywords would match,” Martin said on a Tuesday conference call with reporters. “Especially when companies are using automated tools — it’s a script, and human beings aren’t even looking at this — the potential for abuse [under Protect IP and SOPA] is huge.”

The government’s new website annihilation process would involve federal tampering with the domestic Domain Name System — a basic Internet building block that links numerical addresses where Internet data is stored to URL addresses that people actually type into web browsers. The Chinese government censors the Internet for its citizens by engaging in DNS blocking, restricting access to certain domains.

Tech experts warn that giving the U.S. government such power could hinder the functionality of many web applications, severing the connection between domain URLs and numerical data addresses that many programs rely on. It would also hamper efforts to introduce a new security system known as DNSSEC, which national security programmers have been developing for years.

“The Act would allow the government to break the Internet addressing system,” wrote 108 law professors in a July letter to Congress. “The Internet’s Domain Name System (“DNS”) is a foundational building block upon which the Internet has been built and on which its continued functioning critically depends. The Act will have potentially catastrophic consequences for the stability and security of the DNS.”

Hollywood and other SOPA backers counter that the bill is merely an effort to fight foreign piracy of American products, but the broad language in the Senate bill may subject domestic sites to trouble if they link to foreign sites, while the House version explicitly permits whole-site takedowns of sites operating outside the U.S.

The bipartisan resistance to the bill is reflected not only in whip counts, but among high-powered Washington advocacy groups. The website for liberal grassroots organizer MoveOn is blacked out on Wednesday, while the Heritage Foundation, a hardline conservative think tank, said Tuesday that it opposes both SOPA and Protect IP, and will count both as “key votes,” a critical metric that will be included in the group’s annual “scoring” for lawmakers.

The Progressive Campaign Change Committee held a conference call on Tuesday in which co-founder Adam Green emphasized that his organization — a major force in liberal political fundraising — would “make sure people are held accountable for any votes to end the Internet as we know it, Republican and Democrat.” Although the conference call was sponsored by longtime liberals, it included a surprise visit from House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a conservative Republican who has been a vocal SOPA opponent based on the bill’s potential to harm the Internet and impede free speech.

Reid is pressing ahead with a vote without resolving conflicts with the White House over the content of the bill, most notably with regard to DNS blocking. The Obama team highlighted the DNS issue when it issued its position, stating, “Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security.”

But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) has offered no legislative language eliminating DNS. However the existing bill is amended, Reid intends to force a vote without any additional hearings. Leahy has stated that he will include a provision in the bill requiring that experts conduct a study to examine the potential effects of the legislation before it is actually implemented. Nevertheless, the bill would still require DNS filtering after the study is conducted. Tech lobbyists are now making the rounds on Capitol Hill arguing that if Leahy believes the bill’s effects must be studied first, it makes more sense to hold off before passing anything ahead of such a study.

Reid, said a senior Democratic aide, is open to a manager’s amendment — a compromise bill that would replace the current language — to resolve the differences between the two sides, though getting one in time is a daunting prospect. Reid, said the aide, is committed to moving forward with the vote whether it has 60 supporters or not.

“I don’t think he likes having procedure dictated to him by outside interests. He scheduled the vote and he doesn’t want to pull it down just based on pressure,” said the aide. “He’d just as soon call the vote and have it fail.”

In the House, the office of Majority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said he will not allow SOPA to come to a vote before the full chamber in its current form. But exactly how it may be revised is unclear, and many web advocates expect the House version to simply copy the Senate’s, provided the Senate bill can overcome a filibuster in the face of White House opposition.

One remaining wild card is how Senate Republicans will face the floor vote next week. Plenty of Republicans back the bill, but the party may use the opportunity to oppose it en masse, adopting Brown’s reasoning that regulating the Internet could kill jobs. Or they could help it pass, putting Democrats in a political jam between Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

The GOP, one Democratic aide guessed, might “help us punch ourselves in the face.”

1. Angry Birds Seasons: A game that unites us all while dealing with Holiday Shoppers and allows us to relieve our frustrations in a healthy & fun way!

2. Virtual Zippo Lighter: For Christmas caroling! Sway back and forth with  your phone held up high in the air and help Santa land safely. (Also a wonderful option at concerts & outdoor events)

3. Talking Santa: Much like Talking Tom Cat, say what you want into the microphone of this app and it’ll say it back to you, but in a funny voice!  If you want to be a Grinch, I don’t recommend showing this one to the kids!

4. My Holiday Coloring Book: I think your phone may have just been hijacked…

5. Fireplace: Who needs the “Yule Log” when you’ve got this app?

6. Christmas Decoration Tips: If you haven’t trimmed the tree yet, you might want to download this app for some help.

7.  The Snow Report: Check updates & see if you are in for a “White Christmas”

8. iGevalt- Dreidel Simulator: Like the old classic you played growing up, but electronic! You’ll have to bring your own chocolate coins for this one.

9. Air Cassette: Who doesn’t want to play their Holiday tunes from a vintage looking device?

10. Amazon Mobile: For all your Holiday shopping needs- skip the lines and make buying easier with this trusted site and app.

11. Santa Burp: Not too sure what to make of this one, but I’m thinking Santa spent a little too much time at the Company Egg Nog Bowl this year!

12. iMovie: Because if Grandma happens to get ran over by a reindeer, you are going to want proof!

For the record, please visit here, for your Verizon Wireless updates and news.

The Huffington Post Gerry Smith First Posted: 11/30/11 12:11 PM ET Updated: 11/30/11 01:29 PM ET

A security researcher has posted a video detailing hidden software installed on smart phones that logs numerous details about users’ activities.

In a 17-minute video posted Monday on YouTube, Trevor Eckhart shows how the software – known as Carrier IQ – logs every text message, Google search and phone number typed on a wide variety of smart phones – including HTC, Blackberry, Nokia and others – and reports them to the mobile phone carrier.

The application, which is labeled on Eckhart’s HTC smartphone as “HTC IQ Agent,” also logs the URL of websites searched on the phone, even if the user intends to encrypt that data using a URL that begins with “HTTPS,” Eckhart said.

The software always runs when Android operating system is running and users are unable to stop it, Eckhart said in the video.

“Why is this not opt-in and why is it so hard to fully remove?” Eckhart wrote at the end of the video.

In a post about Carrier IQ on his website, Eckhart called the software a “rootkit,” a security term for software that runs in the background without a user’s knowledge and is commonly used in malicious software.

Eckhart’s video is the latest in a series of attacks between him and the company. Earlier this month, Carrier IQ sent a cease and desist letter to Eckhart claiming he violated copyright law by publishing Carrier IQ training manuals online. But after the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, came to Eckhart’s defense, the company backed off its legal threats.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation said the software that Eckhart has publicized “raises substantial privacy concerns” about software that “many consumers don’t know about.”

Carrier IQ could not immediately be reached for comment. But the company told Wired.com that its software is used for “gathering information off the handset to understand the mobile-user experience, where phone calls are dropped, where signal quality is poor, why applications crash and battery life.”

On its website, Carrier IQ, founded in 2005, describes itself as “the world’s leading provider of Mobile Service Intelligence solutions.”

SEE VIDEO: Carrier IQ Part #2

For information on NYC Technology news please visit: The New York Times

Functionality is important to Microsoft and Windows 8 will coordinate very well with sharing important documents and photos. Windows 8 also includes an updated and secure Internet Explorer 10.

Developers will see a huge advantage with Windows 8 as there is now a platform for which designing apps is extremely impressive. Windows 8 also boasts a new and clean “Metro style” graphic interface.

“Windows 8 is built on the rock-solid foundation of Windows 7, and it features many improvements in performance, security, privacy, and system reliability. Everything that consumers, developers, and IT pros have come to love about Windows 7 are still there only better,” states Microsoft.

As for why Windows 8 is great for your business, Microsoft had this to say:

“With Windows To Go users will experience increased mobility and business continuity without the need to carry a laptop or tablet. An encrypted USB device will securely start their managed business desktop with access to corporate resources from any computer capable of running Windows 8, virtually anywhere.

DirectAccess helps remote users to securely access resources within a corporate network  such as SharePoint sites, line of business applications, and file shares without the need for a user-initiated connection back to the corporate network.

Windows 8 also uses metered connection services that inform users about paid data usage, and enables users and apps to optimize for cost and bandwidth.”

Sounds positive and convenient! Something many of us look for when choosing versatile software for our computers.

If your organization would like to upgrade to Windows 8 and wants more information about the product, Contact us today at DAG Tech or Toll Free 1-888-566-8118

Vampires have often found it advantageous to maintain a hidden presence in humanity’s most powerful institutions. In the 1600s, it was the Catholic church, and today, as you all know, it’s Google and Fox News.

True Blood™ vampire king Bill Compton

For some time now Facebook has been THE social networking site on the scene but along comes Google+ and it seems there could now be a contender!

As writer at allthingsd.com, Tricia Duryee noted:

Google’s move into video games today should scare both Facebook and Apple, the two leading next-generation game platforms. In particular, what should be frightening is that Google is attempting to break today’s 30 percent cut that has become standard across both Facebook and Apple.

Google+ also offers a high resolution video chat option that could blow away Skype and ooVoo! Facebook may need to step it’s game up soon to keep up with the social networking advancements Google seems to have in store and already aboard.

Tips on using Google+ are available here at Mashable.com

These wonderful changes are simply adaptable and personally, I’m looking forward to court houses and the DMV to ride the technology wave. Think about how great it would be to check in to an establishment that typically has an incredibly long line and have all your paperwork filled out and ready to go?

Technological changes are like living in a sci-fi world that can help to boost the economy while providing more jobs to qualified individuals while reducing wait times and allowing us to have more time with our family and friends.

Every now and then, that little icon appears in the system tray. And our reaction is predictable: “Oh, there’s an update for my computer. Ugh. Do I have to? It’s going to slow me down. I don’t have time to reboot. Just leave me alone!”

Indeed, updating one’s operating system seems like the PC equivalent of checking your engine’s oil. But just like a little periodic car maintenance is a minor interruption that could improve the lifespan of your car, these computer updates do exist for a reason.

What are those updates, anyway? What are they doing to my computer?

Most often, Microsoft and Apple send updates to close security loopholes, provide critical updates and protect against a variety of online threats. The severity and necessity of these updates vary.

For example, Microsoft released two updates in May. One corrected an email vulnerability for Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail that could have allowed a hacker to gain access to your computer if you inadvertently visited a malicious site. In other words, probably an important fix if you’re using one of those programs for email, but perhaps not as crucial if you get your email another way.

The other closed a loophole that could have allowed a hacker to take complete control of a computer if you were logged on with administrative user rights. An attacker could have then installed programs, changed or deleted data, or even created new accounts with full user rights, letting a cyber criminal to do even more damage. In other words, this would have been bad. Pretty important!

When computer-repair technicians first examine a malfunctioning machine, one of the first things they look for is whether the operating system’s automatic updates are running. All too often they notice that a machine suffering from a virus or spyware has not been updated in a while. It’s not a coincidence.

Since we’re not all computer scientists or cyber-criminologists, we can’t usually figure out on our own when an update is important. That’s why we recommend leaving it to the experts — when they say an update is required, it’s probably a good idea to follow their lead.

Automatic and easy

The good news is that both Windows (for PCs) and Snow Leopard (for Macs) are designed to take care of these updates automatically, if you let them. These automatic updates are much more convenient — this way, you don’t have to remember to check for updates, or figure out on your own whether this update or that update is truly necessary.

Automatic updates load in the background whenever you’re connected to the Internet, and they’re designed so they won’t slow you down or interfere with other work — even if you’re on a dial-up connection. If you sign off and the download is interrupted, it will pick up from where it left off the next time you connect. Once the update has downloaded, all you need to do is install it — and yes, this does sometimes require a reboot.

In Windows, if you let the updates download and install automatically, it will default to do so at 3 a.m. So, unless you have big computing plans at that time, the whole process should take place without you even noticing it. If your computer is off at that time, Windows will run the update the next time you start up.

So, what do I do?

To turn on Automatic Updates:

Click Start, and then click Control Panel
Click Automatic Updates
Choose Automatic (recommended)

So, though we can’t promise the updates will be terribly exciting, the truth is that they are important. Operating system updates represent a crucial defense against the expanding collection of online threats, helping protect your computer, your files and your personal information.

*Source: AOL Discover

Data- secure devices are crucial for businesses. Windows 7  Thin PC is a great productivity item that helps manage risks as well as reduce costs by unifying PC operations. Windows 7 Thin PC allows businesses to add the client to their entire network without different licenses. Customers with Software Assurance agreements will not have to pay extra for this benefit.

Windows 7 Thin PC is an extremely efficient software that allows for simple updates and fast fixes. It also allows the users to return to a PC smoothly, if needed. Windows 7 Thin PC allows managers to control employees desktops from anywhere. Some might call Windows 7 Thin PC, a trial version, with all the perks of the normal operating system.

Windows 7 Thin PC is a good tool for businesses because of its many benefits. It will store and protect data in a protected center that only authorized users can access, for instance. For installation of this product give us a call today, Toll Free 1-888-566-8118.