I have a reputation for provocative headlines and affirmative writing style, and this irks some readers. But I, and my colleagues here at BetaNews, strive for accuracy in reporting. You can bitch about tone and disagree with storyline and dispute posts' points. I confidently say that we report responsibly.

Following the lead of my predecessor, Scott M. Fulton, BetaNews steers away from rumor stories and the feeding frenzies that often envelope the news media -- sometimes even when the originating blog or news site is highly trusted. Some of you accuse me of being anti-Apple, but I treated with great caution January reports from "This American Life" and the New York Times about worker abuses at Foxconn factories producing Apple gadgets. The ensuing controversy was opportunity to repeatedly zing Apple, as many sites did -- obviously to drum up pageviews. BetaNews didn't. My agenda is responsible reporting, not standing for or against any company or product. The Mike Daisey scandal proves the wisdom of that policy and spotlights what's wrong with news on the web today.

LulzSec is gone now following the ratting out of its top members by the group's apparent leader, Hector Xavier Monsegur, aka "Sabu". Charges were filed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, charging four members with two counts of conspiracy to commit computer hacking.

Those charged on Tuesday include Ryan Ackroyd aka "Kayla" and Jake Davis aka "Topiary" of London; Darren Martyn aka "pwnsauce" and Donncha O’Cearrbhail aka "palladium" of Ireland. A fifth, Jeremy Hammond aka "Anarchaos" of Chicago was also charged, but in connection with the Stratfor hack that occurred last December. He was arraigned separately of the rest of LulzSec.

The joke is on LulzSec this morning following the arrests of three top members of the group, and charges filed against two more. The action follows the cooperation of its leader, Hector Xavier Monsegur, aka "Sabu", who has reportedly worked with authorities since his arrest last June.

Monsegur plead guilty to 12 hacking-related charges in August. Although details of his arraignment have yet to be made public, the charges against four of the five are now available online.

Creating a website is something that many people feel an urge to do but, as with many things, the perceived steep learning curve is enough to put most folks off the idea. In reality, it is actually quite simple to create web site -- obviously, the greater your knowledge the more impressive  site you can create -- and there are a number of WYSIWYG editors to choose from that mean you do not need to know HTML, CSS or any other form of coding.

Coming from the team behind WYSIWYG Web Builder, Quick ‘n’ Easy Web Builder is a cross-platform website creation tool that shows great signs of promise.

Putting information on the web is supposed to make it more convenient to access, but of course it doesn’t always work out that way. Especially if you’re accessing a site that is incredibly slow, for instance. Or you’re trying to download content that is spread all around the site, like multiple zip files, one each across many pages.

You may not have to put up with these inconveniences, though -- not if you’ve a copy of HTTrack to hand, as the program will automatically download the site you specify for easy reference later.

It's likely that most will expect domains belonging to popular web-based e-mail services are at the top of the list for the mountains of spam we receive everyday. That's not the case: the most common spam domains according to Chelmsford, Mass.-based security firm AVG are social networks.

Facebook tops the list at 7.3 percent, followed by Twitter at 4.2 percent. Considering these are the top two social networking sites, that's not too surprising. How about Google+? Hard to say since it doesn't have its own domain, nor did google.com appear in the list AVG supplied us. LinkedIn also appears, but way down in eighth at 1.5 percent of all spam.

If you’re not comfortable with the command line versions of Ping, Traceroute and other essential network tools, then there’s no shortage of GUI versions which offer a little extra convenience.

EToolz, though, extends this idea a little further. Not only do you get the usual Ping, Trace and DNS options, but it also includes some handy web-related tools, and presents them all in a simple, portable package.

You have undoubtedly noticed that an ever-increasing amount of the time you spend using your computer is online. The same is true of your phone, and when you’re out and about it is quite usual to use dedicated apps to access services such as Facebook and Twitter. But when using a desktop or laptop, the vast majority of people will head straight to the website of various online services. Thanks to Pokki this may change.

Pokki is a platform for a series of applications that can then be used to transform a range of websites and online services into desktop apps. The value of being able to access the Internet through the desktop rather than a browser is something that has been recognized in the past -- even Microsoft noticed the potential early on with its Active Desktop component in older versions of Windows. Pokki is somewhat more advanced than this and other similar options that are available, offering you a series of specially designed apps, each of which have been built from the ground up with a particular web service in mind.

Tomorrow is "Dump Go Daddy Day", not that many of you waited, based on your comments. For those considering to show their outrage at the registrar for active SOPA support (since withdrawn), it might be helpful to see what others are doing, where they're taking domains and exact reasoning for kicking Go Daddy down the hill.

But first, I must say that negative response to yesterday's Go Daddy/SOPA post surprised me. My some of you really are outraged. What I don't understand: Why focus all that anger on Go Daddy, or any other SOPA supporter, when legislators in the House and Senate who proposed the Stop Online Piracy Act, and sibling PROTECT IP ACT (PIPA), have the power to pass a bill into law? Wouldn't boycotting them make more sense? Or letting President Obama know how you would feel about him signing rather than vetoing the legislation? We are entering a big election year in just a few days, after all.

There's a strange irony to the sudden, seemingly grassroots campaign against Go Daddy. The domain registrar supported SOPA, Stop Online Piracy Act, that many people say will curtail free speech on the Internet. Now there's mass call for a Go Daddy boycott, but it has taken on mass peer-pressure hysteria -- that by association you are somehow evil if you don't transfer domains from Go Daddy. Stated differently, Go Daddy protesters block peoples' right to choose, too, by pressuring them to leave the registrar. They're guilty now of what they accuse the government would do in the future -- suppressing freedom on the Internet.

The full force of realization hit this morning while scanning my newsfeed. I use Feedly on my Motorola XOOM LTE to check Google Reader, where I saw a TechCrunch post missed yesterday about site ByeDaddy. You can go there and see what domains use Go Daddy. Something like this exists for one reason, to extend the Go Daddy boycott to others -- to force them to give up the registrar. But there is plenty of pressure to switch elsewhere, as December 29, "Dump Go Daddy Day", approaches.

My idiots of the year award almost certainly will go to Netflix and Go Daddy, which tarnished their brands through nothing more than sheer stupidity (there are still five days in the month for your organization to royally screw up and claim the honor). Both companies tried to step back from the brink, only to watch tens of thousands of customers fly over the edge into the "frak you" abyss. I can't decide which company's actions is stupider; Go Daddy's idiocy is more recent, and the damage still unfolds.

In midsummer, Netflix raised prices and later proposed splitting into two companies. Following customer outrage, which included thousands of departures, Netflix nixed the split but not the price hike. Go Daddy's situation is potentially much worse. The registrar supported the Stop Online Piracy Act, only to change position on December 23, a day after updating reasons for standing behind the proposed legislation. SOPA support is over, but customer outrage -- and defection -- is not. December 29 has been dubbed "Dump Go Daddy Day", not that many of its customers are waiting that long.

Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, is churning up increasing debate as the holidays approach. There's irony here. The very public response about SOPA is freedom the bill, or its Senate sibling PROTECT IP, could take away. Dan Bull's "SOPA Cabana" YouTube music video is example of the grassroots response to the proposed legislation. YouTube is one of the services SOPA would target, likely diminishing freedom of expression like Bull's. The headline to this post comes from his video.

To recap, Senators introduced PROTECT IP in May and House representatives did likewise with SOPA in October. Either bill would give the government broad powers to take down websites, seize domains and compel search engines from indexing these properties. Little more than a request from copyright holders is necessary. It's essentially guilty-until-proven-innocent legislation that would punish the many for the sins of the few, while disrupting the fundamental attributes that made the Internet so successful and empowered so many individuals or businesses to accomplish so much. (Review the bills: PROTECT IP. SOPA.)

Network services company Infoblox on Monday released the results of a survey conducted by The Measurement Factory called the IPv6 Census, which revealed that support for IPv6 by .com, .net, and .org zones grew by 1,900 percent in one year, thanks in large part to the support by popular registrar GoDaddy.

Last February, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) announced that the last IPv4 addresses had been allocated, and that it would only be a matter of time before they ran out.

The results are in to BetaNews poll "US Congress is considering two new copyright bills: PROTECT IP and Stop Online Piracy Act. Do you support them?" Among the 2,560 people who responded to the question (so far), 63 answered "Yes". Who are these people? I'm surprised it's that many. Only 95.43 percent answered "No" to legislation with wide bipartisan support and likelihood of passing both Houses in some form.

"Whenever you hear about something having 'bipartisan' support, hold onto your wallet and don't pick up the soap" writes commenter psycros. My own reaction is equally strong, and the proposed bills are supposed to protect me. I'm a victim. Everyday people steal copyrighted content BetaNews paid to produce and posts it for their own profit -- if nothing else feeding off the Google economy. PROTECT IP and SOPA are supposed to protect my writing and livelihood as a copyrighted content producer. No thanks.

It's time for your yearly physical. Walking into the doctor's office is like any other visit: the same corny elevator music, the same outdated magazines, and that stack of paperwork the receptionist always hands you to fill out. But there's something new in that paperwork. Your doctor is asking you to sign a new agreement. What it asks for surprises you.

Your doctor wants you to turn over the rights of what you may say about him or her online. Sound ridiculous? It's not and is the newest method medical professionals use to protect their reputations. One company is spearheading this effort, and has become the target of criticism for its practices.