Toronto – 2004: COMMON

All of us that travel internationally are used to big crowds at airports, but the number of people at Perason International airport in Toronto, Canada was as large as I have ever seen.  Although the lines for immigration looked formidable, the processing moved steadily and efficiently (even without the digital IDs I have been advocating). The […]

Immigration – Does It Have To Mean Long Lines?

One thing the trips to Toronto and Brazil this week had in common was long lines to get through immigration. The U.S. State Department is about ready to roll out new passports which will have embedded digital photographs. There will be a scanner at the point of immigration which will take a digital picture of […]

Four Percent

A new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project revealed that "only" four percent of Americans have used the Internet to buy prescription drugs — and even fewer do so through foreign pharmacies. Given that most of the solicitations to buy drugs online are spam and that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration […]

Spyware

A story in the New York Times this morning described how the Federal Trade Commission is going after a former fax spammer who is now allegedly using "spyware" to track our activities on the web, push us to various marketing programs, barrage us with advertisements, and otherwise make our Internet experience less than positive. I […]

Long Distance – No. 9: Epilogue

When I said yesterday that there may be some further financial challenges ahead for the "traditional" telecommunications companies, I did not realize that on that same day AT&T Corp., the nation’s largest long-distance carrier, announced a plan to eliminate 7,000 jobs and write off $11.4 billion in assets. The Wall Street Journal reported that the […]