DigitMemo.com

Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and now CTO at Mozilla, and Microsoft’s Chris Wilson are in sharp disagreement over the next version of JavaScript

Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich, creator of the popular scripting language ECMAScript, better known as JavaScript, and Microsoft’s Chris Wilson, platform architect of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer platform team, are trading heated rhetoric over the proposed next version of the language. Microsoft, whose own version of JavaScript is called JScript, is quibbling with the ECMAScript Edition 4 effort, which is supported by Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser.

Click for more on Mozilla and Microsoft Battle Over JavaScript »

Google has confirmed that the recent update to its “visible PageRank” system is an effort to crackdown on sites trying to rig this closely-watched web popularity contest.

Over the weekend, Google search engine guru Matt Cutts told Search Engine Journal that the company is intent on punishing web publishers that attempt to sell their PageRank currency to other sites.

A site with a high PageRank can often boost the rank of a less-popular site simply by linking to it. As a result, popular sites will often provide such links in exchange for cash. And Google doesn’t like that.

Click for more on Google explains PageRank tweak »

Congress and the House decided once more to not tax the Internet!

The U.S. Congress and Senate once again agreed to a bipartisan resolution that extends the Internet tax moratorium.

The highly debated issue saw strong support for keeping the Internet tax free from both those in the industry and from grass roots movements.  ISPs strongly opposed any sort of taxation as it would hurt their revenues by driving away customers.  Users, who joined movements such as the “Don’t Tax Our Web Coalition,” did not want to be taxed either, as taxation would likely mean higher service charges.

Click for more on Let the Good Times Roll: 7 More Years of No Internet Tax »

The Internet 2 consortium announced that its updated infrastructure is ready to go online and provide an initial capacity of 100 Gb/s to researchers and educators.

(click to enlarge)

Click for more on 100 Gb/s Internet2 completed »

Bidding began Tuesday for prime new pieces of Internet real estate with the launch of the “.asia” domain name, which aims to become one of the web’s most desirable addresses.

The regional domain comes after the launch of the European-based .eu name last year and aims to join .com and .net as a widely used website suffix.

Click for more on .Asia Internet Domain Launched »

“They used a shotgun to kill a flea”

In what one California official characterized as a case of overkill, U.S. officials disrupted access to all state government Web sites this week after a county Web page was hacked.

The federal government stepped in after learning that a Marin County, California, Web page redirected users to a pornographic Web site. Federal authorities, who have ultimate authority over most local and state Web sites, attempted to block all domains ending in ca.gov on Tuesday, Hanacek said.

Click for more on U.S. blocked California state Web sites to stop porn »

A global, geo-spatial map of the global internet.

(how international cities are connected)

The Chris Harrison project has created a series of maps that show the geographical structure and distribution of the Internet. At the site you can view a global, geo-spatial map of the global internet. The visualizations were put together using data from the Dimes project.

One visualization shows the density of Internet connections worldwide while the other displays how international cities are connected. Detailed Maps of Europe and North America are included as well. It’s amazing how skewed the distribution is — beyond Australia, New Zealand, and parts of South-East Asia, the southern hemisphere has only a peppering of connectivity.

AT&T claims to respect its subscribers’ right to voice their opinions and says that the contract is aimed at stopping the exploitation of children, and other tangible wrongs.

As we discussed here in the last 24 hours, AT&T’s Terms of Service has very broad language giving them the right to terminate the account of any AT&T Internet service customer who criticizes the company.

Click for more on AT&T disconnecting critical users? Probably not »

The new ToS that attempts to give AT&T the right to disconnect its own customers who criticize the company on blogs or in other online settings.  

AT&T has rolled out new Terms of Service for its DSL service that leave plenty of room for interpretation.

Click for more on AT&T threatens to disconnect subscribers who criticize the company »

Three Republican U.S. senators want to make permanent a temporary measure banning taxes on Internet access that is due to expire November 1.

The current Internet tax moratorium, which Congress has extended twice since 1998, bans taxes on Internet access, as well as other taxes unique to the Internet. It’s important for Congress to pass a permanent ban soon before state and local governments begin to tax Internet access, said Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican.

Click for more on Senators push for Internet tax ban »