Caron Carlson

The course that congressional leaders are following this week to extend controversial domestic spying powers of the USA Patriot Act was never animated on Schoolhouse Rock or taught in high school civics classes. A considerable stretch of the Patriot Act IIs path to law lay behind closed doors among a small group of lawmakers accompanied […]

Starting next year, adware and software providers that want to continue placing ads on such prominent Web sites as AOL and Yahoo will have to obtain the consent of users before their applications are downloaded. Under the Trusted Download Program announced today, TRUSTe will create a list of certified downloadable applications. The program is sponsored […]

Democrats in Congress proclaimed an aggressive plan today to improve the nations standing in technological innovation, and many of the priorities outlined mirror recommendation long sought by the IT industry. Lamenting that federal funding for basic research peaked in 1987 and that the United States ranks 16th in the world in broadband penetration, House minority […]

To give network managers greater peace of mind when migrating to voice over IP, Xelor Software Inc. today launched service quality management software that automates quality of service tools provided with systems from Cisco Systems Inc. and Avaya Communications Inc. Many software makers offer QOS tools for IP, covering everything from testing to traffic management, […]

President Bush nominated a Tennessee utility regulator to the Federal Communications Commission and reappointed FCC Commissioner Michael Copps to a second term at the agency, according to White House officials. Deborah Taylor Tate, a Republican commissioner on the Tennessee Public Service Commission, is widely seen as supportive of FCC Chairman Kevin Martins deregulatory approach, and […]

White House officials said yesterday that President Bush plans to nominate a Tennessee utility regulator to the Federal Communications Commission and to reappoint FCC Commissioner Michael Copps to a second term at the agency. Deborah Taylor Tate, a Republican commissioner on the Tennessee Public Service Commission, is widely seen as supportive of FCC Chairman Kevin […]

Data security legislation moved forward in the U.S. House of Representatives last week after Democrats lost a hard-fought battle to insert a number of consumer protections into the industry-backed bill, portending a contentious path to passage. At the heart of the debate is how much it will cost American businesses to comply with federal legislation […]

The two largest bell operating Companies are in such a hurry to complete their acquisitions of the two largest long-distance carriers that they volunteered conditions that even the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission thinks are unnecessary. The FCC last week ordered several requirements to protect competition following Verizon Communications Inc.s planned purchase of MCI […]

Federal lawmakers are eager to take action against the growing problem of data theft, but some security and privacy experts fear that the zeal to see legislation passed may result in a nationwide law that is weaker than state measures already in place. Last week, U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., added the Data Security & […]

For enterprises with multiple locations that require very high-capacity connections, such as hospitals and colleges, TelCove Inc. this week will ramp up its metropolitan Ethernet services to a capacity of 10G bps, 10 times faster than its current offering. Until now, TelCoves metro and intercity fiber-optic network offered Ethernet service connections ranging from 10M bps […]

The advance of voice-over-IP systems is blurring the line between the PC and the telephone, making the PC as convenient as the phone and the phone as versatile as the PC. Making strides on both fronts, Citrix Systems Inc. plans to unveil two new sets of features for its Application Gateway for IP telephony. The […]

A study released Monday by the Information Technology Association of America contends that sending IT jobs overseas will result in the creation of 337,000 new jobs throughout the U.S. economy by 2010. The estimates in the 2005 Global Sourcing Study, prepared by Global Insight Inc., are meant to deflect ongoing criticism that the tech industry […]