Michigan,United States

Which retailers will thrive in 2009 and which will have an uphill battle? A survey of customer satisfaction during the holiday season may shed light on those issues.

Amazon and Netflix delighted online shoppers, according to the annual Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index from ForeSee Results and FGI Research. Meanwhile, satisfaction with Web sites for Circuit City, Gap, Home Depot, HSN, Neiman Marcus, and Overstock fell below industry standards.

When Damian Zikakis' laptop computer was stolen last May, he figured that was the last he would see of it. A thief had broken into the Birmingham [Mich.] offices of his employer, Boyden Executive Search. Zikakis promptly bought a new computer. He had subscribed to an automated computer backup service called Mozy, and he reconnected via his new laptop. That's when the Mozy service, which costs $5 per month for individuals, really paid off.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin is under fire in a new report from an oversight subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The 110-page report, entitled Deception and Distrust: The Federal Communications Commission under Chairman Kevin J. Martin, charges that Martin changed and withheld data and reports to bolster his views, and presided over a demoralized and dysfunctional agency.

No Illegal Activity

In a scathing report released Tuesday, congressional investigators outlined a pattern of mismanagement, dysfunction and abuse of power at the Federal Communications Commission under the agency's Republican chairman, Kevin Martin.

The report -- the result of a nearly yearlong, bipartisan investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee -- accuses Martin of manipulating data and suppressing information to influence telecommunications policy debates at the agency and on Capitol Hill.

Water, water, everywhere, but hardly a drop moving fast enough to produce electricity?

Existing technologies that harness energy from water can only operate if the current is moving at five or six knots, but most of the world's currents are slower than three knots. Good news! A new cylinder device is able to produce power from a current flowing at less than one knot.

A wireless affiliate of Sprint Nextel Corp. has pulled its request that an Illinois judge block the planned spinoff of Sprint's new broadband network.

Schaumburg, Ill.-based iPCS Inc. said Monday in a regulatory filing that it withdrew its motion for a temporary restraining order preventing Sprint's WiMax network from being combined with Kirkland, Wash.-based Clearwire Corp. The decision came after Clearwire said it didn't plan to offer high-speed wireless Internet service in iPCS's markets before July 1, 2009.

Vijay Prashad in CounterPunch:

Vijay Prashad in CounterPunch:

The decision by the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday to open up white space -- the unused frequencies between television channels -- to unlicensed Wi-Fi devices is being hailed by technology companies as the dawning of a new era in broadband Internet access.

But the ruling is also being harshly criticized by various trade groups, including the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which argues that both the FCC's procedure and the concept are flawed.