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It's patent-troll time once again, folks. A one-person* company that adds zero economic value is suing a huge laundry list of companies who use the Web. The company claims it invented a common Web page feature, so it should be entitled to licensing fees. What sort of crazy is this? Explanations in today's The Long View...
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A few days ago a customer came to me with a question; they wanted to know what online services were consuming the most amount of bandwidth on their Internet connection. Easy, I thought, and I proceeded to show them how to report on the top websites consuming bandwidth. The problem was that the top entries in the list were all sites associated with content delivery networks (CDN).  

This grade school includes two buildings about five miles apart -- one for the elementary grades, the other for the middle school -- and one IT pilot fish supports the both. So why doesn't she know about the guy on the roof?

Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) shipped a beta Chrome browser app for the Android OS. Well, for version 4.0, at least. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers review and analyze. Not to mention: Why pilots sometimes go-around instead of landing...

Unless you're a network security or IT security professional, hearing the word "compliance" probably makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It's sort of like when you realized that Bruce Willis was dead at the end of The Sixth Sense - you suspected something was wrong for a while but now your dread has come to life.

This pilot fish gets the same memo from the Big Boss as everyone else in the company -- and it doesn't bode well.

I recently worked with IT managers who wanted to know who were the top users of bandwidth on their networks.

Senator Chuck Grassley says that LightSquared and others may be trying to nobble his investigations. He's looking into LightSquared's plan to transmit high powered signals next to low power GPS signals. He wrote an letter expressing his unhappiness about things said by LightSquared founder Philip Falcone and Fine Point Technologies CEO Todd Ruelle. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers break out the popcorn.

This IT consultant pilot fish gets a call from a small design firm customer whose email has simply stopped working -- and they need it fixed ASAP!

Megaupload is down. The file-sharing locker service was nuked by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the FBI -- in cooperation with authorities in New Zealand. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers note Anonymous' swift retaliation. Not to mention: 30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself...

[Updated with more comment, bile, and venom] The SOPA and PIPA bills appear to have lost critical political support after yesterday's blackout protests by Wikipedia, Google, et al. However, there's now a new bill, known as Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN). In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder if this one is just as one-sided, unconstitutional, and unworkable as the previous efforts.

Network connectivity for this company's testing lab isn't what it should be -- and when one tester complains to IT, IT's response isn't what it should be either.

The subject of personally-owned mobile devices like tablets and smartphones being used on the corporate network is a hot one. I posted about it here, but it's a much wider issue than I covered in that piece. Many companies are concerned about the proliferation of personally-owned devices showing up in the workplace and are now in the process of developing and deploying mobile device policies and technologies to help enforce them.

[Updated with more sarcastic comment] Wikipedia and other sites will protest the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills with a 24-hour blackout tomorrow, January 18. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers hope the U.S. doesn't break the Internet.

When it comes to Wi-Fi routers, WPS is bad news. Not only does it have a design flaw that reveals the Wi-Fi password, but on some routers it can't be turned off. Older routers don't support WPS at all and thus are safer.