I just realized this is the second post in a row that uses a rodent as the cover image ;) I promise I'm not like Michael Jackson in the movie Ben! And no animals were hurt in the making of this photo.

Ask writer Dennis Cooper and you'll find that the answer is Yes.

Cooper had hosted his blog on Blogger.com since 2002, only to find on June 28 that his 14 years of work had been deleted by site owner Google, with no explanation. Making matters worse, they also deleted his Gmail account.

You may not know it, but we're already in the Third Wave of the internet, or the Internet of Things (IoT), as it's come to be known.

Yep, that's right, and if your business is typical of most, you're still stuck at the end of the First Wave – at best.

You're probably thinking “not only do I have no clue what the Third Wave is, but I don't even know what the First and Second were.”

note: the following press release was issued by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs in relation to a contract recently awarded to Glerin through a competitive bid process. Both Downtown Westfield Corporation and Main Street Vineland received grants to work with Glerin.

Main Street New Jersey Awards District Branding and Digital Design Service Grant (Westfield)

TRENTON, NJ –The Main Street New Jersey program administered by the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) today announced that Downtown Westfield Corporation has been awarded a District Branding and Digital Design service grant. The grant will allow Westfield Downtown Corporation to create a new brand for its district, as well as a specially designed website developed by Glerin Business Resources, Inc. of Halifax, VA.　

Through the Main Street New Jersey program, the DCA partners with 19 local Main Street nonprofit organizations throughout the State to reinvigorate traditional downtowns and neighborhood business districts. They all share a common goal of improving their commercial districts to help make them better places in which to live, shop, work, and do business. Over the past several years, Main Street New Jersey has included more services related directly to small business and business district branding to help traditional commercial districts market themselves more effectively.

You've probably heard about the controversy surrounding SOPA and PIPA, but if you're like most people you have no idea what it is, what it means, and why you should care.  SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA stands for the Protect IP Act.  Like most things, they started out with good intentions but have dangerous implications for the future of the internet.

The goal of SOPA and PIPA is to give the government and copyright holders the ability to block access to "rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods," especially those outside of the US.  SOPA is supposed to protect against copyright infringement and would allow copyright owners and/or the US Dept. of Justice to seek court orders against anyone who facilitates or enables those who are infringing on copyrights. The key words are facilitates and enables - notice it doesn't say actually infringing.