Internet

House Bill Wants to Protect Internet Privacy from Employers' Snooping. What Privacy?

The Texas House is about to pass a bill that would bar employers from forcing employees and job applicants to cough up their social media passwords. Proponents here and around the country claim social media should be protected under the Fourth Amendment. Last time I checked, the Fourth Amendment ... More >>

Rage Against the Machinima

As YouTube becomes increasingly wealthy, its stars and the networks that contract with them battle for money and creative control.

All of the Arguments About Digital Music, Summarized

Piracy is theft. Piracy isn't theft because nothing physical is being stolen. You are taking money out of the hands of artists. Artists were already being ripped off by labels. Artists can make the money back by touring. Kickstarter. Here is a bulleted list of numbers showing how much it costs ... More >>

Eccie, Texas' Prostitution-Review Web Site, is Suing a Trash-Talking Blogger

On Eccie.net, the escorts are always known as "providers." Visiting them is referred to as "the hobby," as in, "I do most of my hobbying on the weekends." This afternoon, some 5,700 "hobbyists" and prostitutes were chatting across thousands of message boards. Meanwhile, in a more remote corner of ... More >>

Watch Bon Iver's Official Video for "Hinnom, TX," Which Some Say is in Fort Worth

​There is only a month left in the year, and it's looking like Bon Iver's self titled sophomore album is pretty secure toward the top of our year-end lists. And, as Time reports, a re-release of the album tomorrow will be accompanied by 10 short films, one for every song, including "Hinnom, TX."Ba ... More >>

Food Blogging For Dummies: How To Eat Free and Rule the World With Your Very Own Blog!

​Imagine walking into a restaurant as management dotes on your every move out of fear you might blog about the greasy thumbprint on your plate. Imagine cooking and plating a fabulous meal for 10 friends only to not let them eat while you snap 700 photos of your accomplishment. Imagine all the ... More >>

Nine Musicians Whose Deleted Tweets We'd Love To Peruse With Undetweetable

​Here's the thing about musicians: Many of them are loud, messy, and opinionated. Social media has given them yet another outlet for their rantings and ravings, and we, as fans, eat it up whenever our favorite musicians go on Twitter and mouth off.  This is, tweets are deletable. Always have ... More >>

Will Google Be Able To Match Facebook and Myspace With Its Music Promotion Offerings (Or Lack Thereof)?

​In case you haven't heard, Google is trying to take down the Facebook empire with its new Google social networking site. (Seriously, though, if you haven't heard, it's really time to get out from under that rock). Because social networking sites have become an integral part of music promotion, ... More >>

Two Local Food Entreprenuers Level the Field Through Social Media

Dan Kim, president and chief executive officer of Red Mango, in a photo from the company's MySpace page.​It's undeniable that social networking has changed the landscape of food. How we eat, view and hear about food has been dramatically altered thanks to websites like Yelp, Twitter and Faceb ... More >>

Badges? Do Food and Wine Writers Need Stinking Badges?

​Wine writer and Texas wine booster Jeff Siegel, who blogs as The Wine Curmudgeon, last week raised the interesting question of whether there should be a certification process for wine writers, as recently proposed by fellow wine writer Pamela Heiligenthal. Siegel thinks the concept's corked. ... More >>

As Part of "Operation Payback," Dallas Server Company Raided By FBI In WikiLeaks Probe

​A virtual jaunt 'round the Western Hemisphere has led FBI investigators to anonymous users who appear to have used servers from a Dallas-based server company to disable and disrupt PayPal after the money-wiring site froze a WikiLeaks donations account earlier this month. The Smoking Gun has excer ... More >>

Lisa Stone turned to Facebook to reunite with her high school girlfriends; they turned to Facebook to solve the mystery of her disappearance.

Bonfire Goes Zynga, or: You Can't Keep a Local Gaming Company Down on the Farmville

​Hard to believe it's been almost two years since we posted that item about the two local companies to rise from the ashes of Ensemble Studios -- Robot Entertainment and Bonfire Studios, each consisting of ex-Microsofties scattered to the virtual winds after Ensemble's September '08 demise. Robot' ... More >>

BitTorrent File Sharing Finally Has Porn Producers Crying Onkel in Dallas Federal Court

Let's just say this isn't quite the direction the art guys took with Der Gute Onkel.Maybe you were shocked to discover that copy of Der Gute Onkel you downloaded wasn't, in fact, a meditative German cop drama from 1998. Or maybe that feel-good family porn video was exactly what you were looking for. ... More >>

Presenting! The Completely Free Dallas Observer iPhone App

Download the App for free in the iTunes App Store under Dallas Observer.​Let's get right to the announcement: our brand-spanking new Dallas Observer iPhone App is available for download, right now, in the iTunes App Store. Before we launch into an epic "presenting" speech, where we tell you that's ... More >>

Taco Bell Brings Even More Free Food;
And You Asked for It

Be on the lookout.​Say city regulations never change, and Dallas remains a food-cart desert. Would you settle for a cheery corporate take on the mobile unit fad? Taco Bell's hoping the answer's yes, because it's looking to bring its truck back to town. The bright purple Taco Bell Truck, which ... More >>

Gorilla Vs. Bear and Weekly Tape Deck Join New Pitchfork Offshoot, Altered Zones

​Earlier today, Pitchfork announced that it would be launching a new site called Altered Zones on July 7, one that will aim to "focus on leftfield pop, experimental, and home-recorded sounds." And, seeing that Pitchfork's crowdsourcing this sucker out to the blogosphere, it makes perfect sense to ... More >>

They Tried to Sell Their Attack Bots. They Offered Buyers a Taste. Now, It's Off to Prison.

What it looks like when botnets attack​Within computer-security and hacker circles, the names Thomas James Frederick Smith and David Anthony Edwards are well-known -- have been since 2006, when both men launched remote attacks on computer servers housed at Dallas-based The Planet and T35 Hosting. ... More >>

Doug Burr's O Ye Devastator Hits iTunes A Week Early. So Go Download It.

​In addition to The Burning Hotels' new release and the big major label debut from Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights, it looks like another big local release is up for the taking on iTunes. Though it won't see a physical release until next Tuesday, Doug Burr's new release, O Ye Devastator, ... More >>

Saturday Night Live Remembers Deep Blue Something

Partly Mozart

Tweetin' What We're Eatin'

These kids today... What with the Facebook and the Twitter, fail-free schooling and Red Bull with their vodka. Camille, hand us our Huxtable sweater, it's so cold and scary.But since we have this thing about keeping up with the latest and greatest (and sometimes the oldest and worst) in foodstuffs-- ... More >>

Jonathan Coulton

Wednesday, May 13, at the Granada Theater

UNT Student Behind "Denton Police" Twitter Says New Media Mash-Ups Inspired Him

Brian Baugh, the University of North Texas senior behind the "Denton Police" Twitter account, says his project began with his surprise at how much information is out there about each of us online. Not just the party photos on Facebook, the home address in the people search or your Twitter update abo ... More >>

The Rap Up: Rayne In Your Space

Gay Pride Flower Power

Stalking Art

Gilbert doesn't know us, but we're watching his work

Video: Simple Plan at Palladium

Bits: PlayRadioPlay!, Black Tie Dynasty, Faux Fox

Is MySpace Marring Band Mystique?

More Erykah Badu News...

L'Chaim: A Dallas Artist Helps Give Israel a Second Life

Is Your Virtual Sex Furniture Second-Hand?

God's Favorite Web Site

Got Questions for Forever The Sickest Kids?

To Blog or Not to Blog?

Learn to fear the 'sphere at Cityplace

Griffith and Wells: Eww, Tube.

Stay Classy, San Diego

Raising Dallas

Love lives at the jail

Cuban's "Moron" Surfaces...

Norah Jones Will Rock Your Lame Ass

Avast, Ye Pirates

Get yourself--and Congress--ready for the next wave of absurd anti-file-sharing tactics

Guster

Thursday, September 9

Rebel Hunter

Oak Cliff's Ed Sebesta helped topple Trent Lott

When Online Got Off Base

Or: How Mark Cuban would have--and could have?--saved the music biz

Ransom Notes

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

Who'll buy my memories?

Anyone, as long as you sell them on eBay

Censor.com

Plano wades into the thicket of Internet access, porn, and the First Amendment

Virtual realty

Real-estate agents face extinction in an information-rich century 21