These arrests came as a response to recent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, in defense of WikiLeaks in 2010. The attacks targeted Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, and Amazon, all of which stopped providing services to WikiLeaks after it started the distribution of thousands of leaked diplomatic cables.

In their statement, the FBI said that these arrests are “as part of an ongoing investigation into recent coordinated cyber attacks against major companies and organizations”.

ars technica has some really interesting personal stories from people who got arrested and searched by the FBI.

Google

Search results on Google are getting less and less relevant and useful. Further more, since Google assumes we’re all idiots, it tends to decide for us what we ACTUALLY wanted to search. So, it searches similar words, similar meanings, and many other “similars”, which are usually completely different from what I searched for. Thus, I have to use Quotes and the Plus sign a hell of a lot more than I used to. Just like in the good old 90s.

Now, Google launched a new feature – Google Instant. With this feature turned on, search results appear immediately when you start typing. Not only will Google suggest search queries for you – but it will also give you the search results before you even finished typing. Wow.

This, in fact, is an even more annoying feature than Google Suggest. First of all, not all people look at the screen when they type. A lot of people need to look at the keyboard, and won’t lift their heads until they are done typing. In the words of Robin Williams – totally redundant number one.

Of course, if you mistype, the suggestions and search results will change when you type and correct your mistake, creating a distracting movement of letters and images on the screen. Moreover, the results displayed rely on the most common searches done by other Google users. Which means that if you are searching something that’s a bit out of the mainstream, the search suggestions will be completely irrelevant.

Fine, you say, disable Google Instant and stop complaining. You’re right, of course. I did that. Slight problem, though: Google allows me to disable Google Instant, but the ability to disable Google Suggest has vanished from the preferences page. Again, Google thinks it can decide what’s good for me. For all of us. Google brags that the new feature will save us all a lot of time. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Google for the time I had to waste on finding a way to disable their stupid features. So, thanks. Really.

Disable Google Suggest

If you want to use Google without Google Suggest, you need to use this URL:

http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0&hl=en
Another good option is to use a different search engine. My favorite is Duck Duck Go – a wonderful, quick, smart search engine, which gives very relevant results and is fun to use.

Google, just give it a rest, will ya? Just let us decide if we want your fancy, useless features. KTHXBAI.

Times have changes, though, and nowadays it’s the social networks that take most of our time: Americans spend about a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8% a year ago, according to new research by The Nielsen Company. The personal side of the net is still there: users spend 36% of their time communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging.

Actually, e-mails rank only 3rd on the “Time Spent Online” chart. Gaming takes the 2nd place, which is heavily linked to the popularity of social networks. It’s pseudo-games like Farmville that tipped the scales thus, no doubt. E-mail is still the top activity when it comes to mobile usage – an increase from 37.4% to 41.6% of U.S. mobile Internet time.

June 2010 was a major milestone for U.S. online video as the number of videos streamed passed the 10 billion mark.

Although the major portals also experienced a double digit decline in share, they remained as the fourth heaviest activity, accounting for 4.4% of U.S. time online.

An Introduction to Firefox’s Tab Candy from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

The court order was handed down by Judge Ronald Whyte of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, who said “[security] experts had analyzed data derived from internet searches which establish that defendant, an internet service provider, was engaged in widespread illegal activity. There seems to be little doubt from the information provided that [it] functioned primarily as an internet service provider for illegal activity.”

3FN avoided detection by frequently changing IP addresses. FTC officials said 3FN and its other alias companies were distributing malware capable of keystroke logging, password stealing other data theft using hidden backdoor remote control programs to steal personal information and spread spam.

Recommended Web Hosting Services

• MidPhase
• HostGator
• WebHostingPad