Internet

"Duck Taco" Lawsuit

Five Dumb Reasons to Hate Social Media: Stand Up For Twitter & Facebook!

There are lots of annoying things about the various social networks that exist and plenty of reasons to think they are stupid. I've enumerated a number of those reasons on this very blog. But, with all things, there are people who will hate just to hate and sites like Twitter and Facebook often make ... More >>

Prison Employees Say The Man (i.e., TDCJ) Is Monitoring Their Facebook Friends Lists

Some employees of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are accusing wardens of disciplining, and in some cases firing, them for having Facebook friends with criminal records. Duane Stuart, who runs a private TDCJ employee forum, thebackgate.org, tells Hair Balls that wardens regularly inspect e ... More >>

Anti-Social: Employers Want Candidates' Facebook and Twitter Logins

Privacy has increasingly become an important topic in the technology world. There are concerns that web sites like Google and Facebook are collecting data to sell to advertisers. There is the worry that the government is using the massive amounts of information passed around the Internet every day t ... More >>

EMT Hires Hit Man

Privacy has increasingly become an important topic in the technology world. There are concerns that web sites like Google and Facebook are collecting data to sell to advertisers. There is the worry that the government is using the massive amounts of information passed around the Internet every day t ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

After reading our blogging colleague Katharine Shilcutt's post about Robb Walsh's tasting and pairing of Texas Gulf oysters and wines last week at Oceanaire on Westheimer, we were geeked to see a post from a wine blogger's perspective by one of our favorite Houston wine educators, Sandra Crittenden. ... More >>

Bill & Ted's Alex Winter Examines Napster's Fall In SXSW Doc Downloaded

Alex Winter (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Idiot Box) has spent the last decade trying to make a movie about Napster, the revolutionary peer-to-peer filesharing site that changed the music industry forever. Winter met Napster founder Shawn Fanning in 2002 and was instantly energized by the p ... More >>

App of the Week: iCab -- A Highly Recommended Alternative to Safari

App: iCab Platform: iPhone, iPad Website: iCab Mobile Cost: $1.99 One of the great innovations of cell phone technology is the ability to use the web on a phone in much the same way you use it on your computer. When the iPhone first emerged, Apple's Safari browser was included and it was a revelati ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Internet Explorer Fans Bite Back

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involving wit ... More >>

Five Reasons You Should Quit Using Internet Explorer

For more than ten years, I've been assisting companies in building and maintaining their Web sites and Web applications. There are lots of things that can be frustrating about this process, most of which have to do with a lack of knowledge on the part of my clients, which is not entirely their fault ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in (Women's) Wine Blogs

Photo by Margaret Shugart, curator of a new blog, The Wine Roads of Texas.​The Wine Roads of Texas: "If you've never seen the communities that run across that vast stretch of road," writes Margaret Shugart, author of a new blog called The Wine Roads of Texas, "you are missing one of the most u ... More >>

In Memoriam: Megaupload (2005 - 2012)

Yesterday, one of our favorite file sharing sites was struck by a government takedown around the early portions of the morning. It was swift, it was brutal and it could have been blamed on Kim Kardashian. Losing MegaUpload was a giant blow to musicians who love uploading zip or rar files of thei ... More >>

SOPA & GoDaddy Explained

Yesterday, one of our favorite file sharing sites was struck by a government takedown around the early portions of the morning. It was swift, it was brutal and it could have been blamed on Kim Kardashian. Losing MegaUpload was a giant blow to musicians who love uploading zip or rar files of thei ... More >>

12 Music Business Predictions for 2012

Photo by Robert Bejil​Where were we? Oh yeah, crystal ball and prophesies. You ready for this? OK. What follows is a list of events we expect to befall the music industry in 2012. Yes, these are etched in stone and should be regarded as gospel. Full prophetic titillation ahead.

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Photo via @SanCrittenden.Houston wine blogger Sandra Crittenden.​Wine Thoughts: One of the things that we love about Sandra Crittenden's blog Wine Thoughts is how she seamlessly alternates between a big, boisterous Chilean red that she picked up at the Tasting Room for "approximately $100," an ... More >>

Republicans Dominate Democrats...in Tweeting

​Our modern technological age has created a lot of new ways to communicate with others. For some, these means seem cold and impersonal. For those who use them regularly, they are simply another option for sending messages into the giant black hole of data that is the Internet. For politicians ... More >>

Five Reasons Why Perry's Attempt to Block Negative Social Media Content Is a Bad Idea

Controlling negative publicity is tough business in the modern world. Virtually everything is caught on tape -- good and bad -- and the Internet provides the ideal place for opposition. From anonymous commenters to bloggers to people on social networking sites, it is impossible to prevent negative c ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs

The Atlantic: In one of the most-discussed articles of the week, The Atlantic asks: "Who wants to be a career food critic anyway?" Citing mounting pressures to blog, Tweet, Facebook and perform a million other small tasks in addition to writing restaurant reviews, author Adam Martin questions if thi ... More >>

O RLY? Rockets Sending Out Open House Invites, Season Ticket Offers

O RLY, Kevin McHale?​There is a classic Internet meme characterized by a photo of a silly-looking bird with the phrase "O RLY?" written across it. The meme was designed to signify someone's response to an outrageous statement, usually posted on a bulletin board. For example, Nerd One might say ... More >>

Comment Of The Day: Second Life Represent!!

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

YouTube Reinstates Ally ASL's Account

​Allyson Townsend, better known to her fans as Ally ASL, made headlines earlier this month when YouTube shut down her account after Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group complained that her videos, which featured Ally translating pop songs by Kesha, Owl City and others into American Sig ... More >>

Why, Lord? Now They're Foursquaring From Space

Life just got better​You, like all people, just LOVE Foursquare, the web application that lets you keep up with where people you don't care about are at any given moment.Because if you don't know that someone has earned enough points to be "Mayor of Lupe Tortilla's" or some such crap, your life wi ... More >>

Gravitas Not Closing; The Twitter Rumor Mill Continues to Spin

The blue plate fried chicken at Gravitas.​It started with a Twitter update from @jimbo126 this past Sunday, July 18: "Per waiter, Gravitas closing after today's bruch service. Sure felt like it - out of half the menu and no bread! Out of SALAD DRESSING." Before long, what was merely an out-of ... More >>

Seven Followers, But Her Tweets Are Still Monitored By The Authorities, Maybe

​As much as social media broadens our horizons, be it through interpersonal or business relations, it creates a whole new universe of privacy issues. Friendswood-era college student Ashley Marzullo found that out firsthand last week after making an off-hand remark on Twitter last week on a particu ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. H-Town Chow Down: Kicking off this week's round of local food blog roundups is ... More >>

Right-Wing Bloggers: Armed, Dangerous And With The Governor

Governor Rick Perry spent the weekend holding a summit for conservative bloggers and social-media types. It included a trip to the gun range, because Rick Perry is a Texan, dammit, and you'll pry his firearms from his cold, dead etc. etc.We know bupkis about guns, but the Come and Get It blog notes ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Owing to all the food blog activity over the last few weeks, this is an all-loc ... More >>

Site Scavenging

Internet content is the "found object" of the 21st century.

Perverts, Beware

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

A Call for More Honesty in Facebook Status Updates

I'll admit it...I'm as self-absorbed as the next person when it comes to writing Facebook status updates. I know no one really cares if I'm watching Larry King or filing my nails or whatever, yet for some reason I choose to update my status line constantly. Have you noticed that very few people se ... More >>

Meiko

I'll admit it...I'm as self-absorbed as the next person when it comes to writing Facebook status updates. I know no one really cares if I'm watching Larry King or filing my nails or whatever, yet for some reason I choose to update my status line constantly. Have you noticed that very few people se ... More >>

Facebook Hamstrings Whopper Sacrifice Application

It was easy to guess that Burger King's somewhat mean-spirited Whopper Sacrifice Facebook application was going to draw some kind of fire; less easy to guess was that the fire would be drawn from Facebook itself, because the application, to put it bluntly, worked too well. In the world of Whopper ... More >>

Will Blog for (Free) Food?

It must be an interesting time to own a restaurant. On the one hand you're pummeled by a shrinking economy and rising food costs. On the other hand you're assailed by a growing number of (mostly uncredentialed) food bloggers ready to pounce on even the slightest misstep and proclaim your restaurant ... More >>

The Secret World Of Dan Patrick, Via Twitter

Dan Patrick -- hyperbolic talk-show host, slightly unhinged state senator -- has joined the Twitter world.Normally, that wouldn't be too exciting, as his Twitter page proves ("Getting ready for the 81st Texas Legislature session").But the decision gave his compadres at Lone Star Times the chance to ... More >>

Miss Pop Rocks: Special Hurricane Ike Edition

Dan Patrick -- hyperbolic talk-show host, slightly unhinged state senator -- has joined the Twitter world.Normally, that wouldn't be too exciting, as his Twitter page proves ("Getting ready for the 81st Texas Legislature session").But the decision gave his compadres at Lone Star Times the chance to ... More >>

Twitter Is Very Important!

Dan Patrick -- hyperbolic talk-show host, slightly unhinged state senator -- has joined the Twitter world.Normally, that wouldn't be too exciting, as his Twitter page proves ("Getting ready for the 81st Texas Legislature session").But the decision gave his compadres at Lone Star Times the chance to ... More >>

“Lawndale Has Many Friends”

Brian Piana creates an entire art installation to gain Top Friend status

Move Over, MySpace: Not So Fast

Local musicians aren't ready to write off MySpace just yet

Move Over, MySpace

With friends like these...

I Want My MP3

With friends like these...

Sex Offenders on MySpace? No Way!

With friends like these...

Down and Dirty Entertainment

With friends like these...

SoundExchange Wants to Kill Internet Radio

On "lost" artists, found money and the murder of free enterprise

Rev It Up

Roaring engines, screaming guitars and...Net safety?

Podnography

And you thought those audio files were only used for music

The Blog Age

Matt Mullenweg helps usher in the real information revolution, one Web log at a time

Three Stooges?

Plus: Aid for AIDS, No Dogfight, Boys of Brazil

Damming the Streams

The major labels want the Internet to be as arid as the airwaves

Napster's Spawn

File-sharing copycats keep free music alive on the Net. The Big Five labels still call it theft.

Ransom Notes

Can one man convince millions of people to pay for their "free" music?