Roy Mark

H-1B visa opponents have turned to the Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort to overturn a 2008 Department of Homeland Security decision that the Programmers Guild, the Immigration Reform Law Institute and others claim is a back-door circumvention of the H-1B visa cap. In a Nov. 13 filing, the coalition asked the Supreme Court to […]

Significant gaps in several areas of the broadband ecosystem must be closed before the United states can fully take advantage of universal high-speed Internet services, according to the Federal Communications Commission task force charged with developing a national broadband plan.The task force cited challenges involving the USF (Universal Service Fund), widely varying broadband adoption rates […]

Legislation to restrict the use of P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing software across the federal government was introduced Nov. 17 by Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The bill comes after a highly confidential House Ethics Committee document containing the list of ongoing investigations was inadvertently exposed in October […]

The Space Frontier Foundation mockingly congratulated NASA Nov. 16 for its “propaganda triumph” in convincing Time magazine to name the Ares I rocket as the best invention of the year. The Ares rocket, part of NASA’s Constellation program, is intended to become NASA’s primary launch vehicle, replacing the aging space shuttle fleet.NASA launched what it […]

The six astronauts onboard the space shuttle Atlantis spent their first full day in space inspecting the space craft for any heat shield damage that may have occurred during what NASA called a “picture-perfect launch day” Nov. 16. Atlantis is expected to dock at the International Space Station Nov. 18 to offload several tons of […]

Three Internet companies-Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty-and their e-commerce partners have earned more than $1.4 billion in revenue with aggressive and misleading sales tactics, according to a Nov. 16 report by the Senate Commerce Committee. (PDF)According to the report, with the cooperation of their online partners, the three companies make sales offers-usually promising cash-back awards-during the […]

The space shuttle Atlantis rumbled off the launching pad Nov. 16 on a flawless launch to the ISS (International Space Station). With near perfect weather — a rarity for recent NASA launch attempts — Atlantis departed on time at 2:28 p.m. for the 11-day mission to the space station.The mission is NASA’s last to the […]

Egypt plans to be the first nation to have a domain name using Arabic script. The announcement from Information Technology Minister Tarek Kamel on the first day ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) launched the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process. IDNs are domain names that include characters other than the currently available set […]

Final preparations are proceeding smoothly for the space shuttle Atlantis’ scheduled Nov. 16 launch to the International Space Station. With only six space shuttle trips remaining before the fleet is retired at the end of next year, the mission is primarily dedicated to delivering spare parts to the space station.Scott Higginbotham, the mission’s payload manager, […]

NASA threw water on the theory that the moon is a dry, desolate place Nov. 13 after revealing that preliminary data from October’s bombing of the moon indicates that significant amounts of water have been found at the moon’s south pole. The landmark finding “opens a new chapter in [scientists’] understanding of the moon,” NASA […]

The FBI arrested Nov. 13 two of convicted swindler Bernie Madoff’s programmers. Jerome O’Hara and George Perez were charged with conspiracy, falsifying books and records of a broker-dealer and falsifying books and records of an investment adviser. For decades, Madoff ran an elaborate Ponzi scheme through BLMIS (Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities), purported to be […]

2012 Movie Unleashes Doomsday Theories, Irks NASA by Roy Mark 2012 The Movie According to Sony Pictures, “Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists and governments. 2012 is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world.” (Photo courtesy […]