Chris Anderson
Special to CNN

When Christine Varney was confirmed in May as the Obama administration’s top antitrust cop, some of her words from last year sent a chill through the Googleplex, the search engine’s headquarters in Silicon Valley.

During the waning days of the Bush administration, Varney worried that the government would not do enough about Google: “I think we’re going to continually see a problem, potentially, with Google, who I think so far has acquired a monopoly in Internet online advertising lawfully.”

Now she’s in a position to do something about it.

Having a legally obtained monopoly is not a crime, but abusing it to gain unfair advantages in other markets can be.

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Without a converter box, satellite service or cable hook-up, analog TVs only deliver static now.

Mary Tuma
For the Houston Chronicle

Without power for 12 days during Hurricane Ike, Houston secretary Donna Clanton relied on her battery-powered TV for news updates, road closings and notices of flooded intersections.

“Actually seeing what was happening made me feel more connected and a little less isolated,” Clanton said.

But portable sets, which played an instrumental role in connecting Houstonians to the outside world during Ike’s lengthy power outages, are now useless, thanks to the digital conversion.

Though Americans were given four extra months to prepare for the nationwide switch from analog to digital signals, the conversion date last week coincided with the advent of this year’s hurricane season, creating challenges for those like Clanton, who depend on battery-operated sets during emergencies

Because digital converter boxes are plugged into the wall, on-the-go analog TV sets won’t function during a blackout. The audio from analog TV broadcasts received on radios are now tuned out, as well.

In September, former Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin warned of a possible shortage of battery-operated digital TV equipment and called on groups such as the Consumer Electronic Association to encourage their availability.

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Elise Labott
CNN State Department Producer

The halls of Foggy Bottom are ringing with the Tweets coming with Iran and the State Department is working to ensure they keep coming.

Senior officials say the State Department is working with Twitter and other social networking sites to ensure Iranians are able to continue to communicate to each other and the outside world.

By necessity, the US is staying hands off of the election drama playing out in Iran, and officials say they are not providing messages to Iranians or “quarterbacking” the disputed election process.

But they do want to make sure the technology is able to play its sorely-needed role in the crisis, which is why the State Department is advising social networking sites to make sure their networks stay up and running for Iranians to use them and helping them stay ahead of anyone who would try to shut them down.

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Editor’s Note: Last week, The National Archives — a repository of important government documents, including the U.S. Constitution — announced it had lost a computer hard drive containing large volumes of Clinton administration records, including the names, phone numbers and Social Security numbers of White House staff members and visitors.  Officials at the Archives say they don’t know how many confidential records are on the hard drive. But congressional aides briefed on the matter say it contains “more than 100,000″ Social Security numbers and Secret Service and White House operating procedures. David Gewirtz tells us why we should be concerned.

The National Archives has lost a hard drive containing large volumes of Clinton administration records.

David Gewirtz | BIO
AC360° Contributor
Editor-in-Chief, ZATZ Publishing

What if thieves broke into the Library of Congress one night and stole 10 percent of all its books? I’m not saying that happened, but it’d be a pretty big theft, wouldn’t it? The Library of Congress houses one of almost every book ever published, so if someone broke in and stole one out ten, that’d be a lot of books to haul away.

But what if someone just stole a $250, five-pound hard drive, the size of half a box of Wheaties from the National Archives? Everyone needs more storage space these days and a nice, 2 terabyte hard drive sitting on a table might have been a juicy target for someone walking by — a janitor, an IT tech, a secretary. It’s small and easy to walk off with, stick it in a book bag, a lunch bag, or even a trash bag.

It’s not really a big deal, is it? So, somebody stole a hard drive. Happens all the time, right?

Well, it does. People steal things and hard drives are nice. After all, there’s a limit to how many YouTube videos of farts lit on fire you can store on your own computer without some extra storage space. But when the drive that goes missing contains hundreds of thousands of records of private citizens’ personally identifiable data such as social security numbers, as well as security procedures at the White House, it might be a bit more serious. That’s what happened last week.

But that’s not even the real issue. The real issue is just how much data is stored on these teeny-weenie devices and how much information might get into the wrong hands if one is purchased with the five-finger discount.

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David Gewirtz | BIO
AC360° Contributor
Editor-in-Chief, ZATZ Publishing

Zombies. I hate zombies. I particularly hate it when wave after wave of zombies come at you, eating brains and dripping flesh.

And yet they came — zombies…everyday computers, brains hijacked by outsiders and linked together to form an army on the attack — they came in droves.

The rate of cyberattacks against large corporations, government agencies, and even small businesses has shot through the roof over the past year.

I’ve thwarted cyberattacks before. But none were as ferocious as the one my company was hit with last week. Literally, millions of zombie computers attacked us, all at once.

Show me the money

In most cases, it’s about money. Cybercriminals use viruses, malware, and spyware to sneak nasty computer code onto unsuspecting computers and then hijack the computers to do their bidding — creating vast armies of zombie computers.

All these computers are then targeted at their victim with one of a few main purposes: use them to send out junk mail or break into financial and credit card data, or gang them up all together at once, to shut down a computer network so the bad guys can extort payment to make it all stop.

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Potential recruits play virtual-combat games at an Army recruiting center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Suzanne Simons
CNN Executive Producer and Author

Just over a year ago, a U.S. staff sergeant in Iraq decided to practice his shooting skills. His target: the Koran, Islam’s holiest book. The military issued a formal apology, promptly dismissed the soldier from his regiment and reassigned him back to the U.S.

But news of the shooting had already made its way onto YouTube, and a firestorm of outrage ignited across the Islamic world. Protests turned deadly in Afghanistan, with several people killed, including one of the NATO soldiers trying to control the crowds.

Back at the Army’s Intelligence and Cultural Awareness Center at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, commanders knew they had a problem. The Army is no longer living in the age of the old-fashioned boots and firearm soldier. Now it’s sending young soldiers into cultures they don’t know.

And the meteoric rise of social networks, on which anyone can post messages or video, means whatever these soldiers do can be reported — or undermined — instantly around the world.

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John D. Sutter
CNN.com Writer/Producer

Twitter is all abuzz this morning with re-posts of this ReadWriteWeb blog, which says the micro-blogging site is clamping down on the way people converse.

From Twitter’s blog:

Based on usage patterns and feedback, we’ve learned most people want to see when someone they follow replies to another person they follow—it’s a good way to stay in the loop. However, receiving one-sided fragments via replies sent to folks you don’t follow in your timeline is undesirable. Today’s update removes this undesirable and confusing option.

Twitter calls the change a “small settings update,” but Twitter users seem upset about the move, saying that it cuts down on a common way to find new, interesting people on the site.

Actors in the new Star Trek movie, which opens this weekend.

Jack Gray
AC360° Producer/Writer

So apparently there’s a Star Trek movie opening this weekend. I know this not because I’m a fan of the franchise, but because Lou Dobbs keeps giving me the Vulcan salute.

Now, I’ll level with you, I’ve never actually seen an entire episode of Star Trek. Not the original. Not Star Trek: The Next Generation. Not even Star Trek Saves Christmas.

All I know is what I’ve pieced together by flipping through the channels in between Ron Popeil infomercials. From what I’ve gathered, the whole thing was based around a group of guys – Captain Kirk, Scotty, and Spock – who met at Gamblers Anonymous and later moved into a spaceship/meth lab.

Now, just because I’ve never seen an episode or any of the movies doesn’t mean that I have anything against Star Trek. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, quality television begins and ends with two words: William Shatner. Hell, I named my guinea pig T.J. Hooker. Sure, he died of malnutrition but that’s beside the point. I’ve just always had a tough time wrapping my mind around science fiction characters. Which explains my aversion to the cast of MTV’s The Hills.

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Nancy Scola
TechPresident.com

Today the White House took a big step towards recreating the ubiquitous Internet presence that the Obama campaign created with the simultaneous launch of profiles on three major social networks: Facebook (Facebook.com/WhiteHouse), MySpace (MySpace.com/WhiteHouse), and Twitter (Twitter.com/WhiteHouse).

In creating the new social media pages, the White House endorsed the Internet maxim that no matter your prestige, power, or stature, it often makes more sense to go to where people already are than to wait for them to come to you. “Technology has profoundly impacted how — and where — we all consume information and communicate with one another,” reads a post on the White House blog titled “WhiteHouse 2.0″ in which the White House announced the new sites. “WhiteHouse.gov is an important part of the Administration’s efforts to use the Internet to reach the public quickly and effectively — but it isn’t the only place.”

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Program Note: Tune in tonight to see the Time 100/Anderson Cooper 360° Special: The World’s Most Influential People at 11 p.m. ET.

Ashton Kutcher
For Time

Years from now, when historians reflect on the time we are currently living in, the names Biz Stone and Evan Williams will be referenced side by side with the likes of Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi, Philo Farnsworth, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs — because the creation of Twitter by Stone, 35 (right), Williams, 37, and Jack Dorsey, 32 (not pictured), is as significant and paradigm-shifting as the invention of Morse code, the telephone, radio, television or the personal computer.

In a sea of Web 2.0 technologies, Twitter — the microblogging service that restricts each entry, or tweet, to 140 characters — has managed to transcend basic instant messaging and social networking. It is a new and completely original form of communication that has gained worldwide adoption and captured the imaginations of people at every level of media interest or influence.

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