Internet

Greg Risling SANTA ANA -- A Costa Mesa businessman who defrauded hundreds of investors with a phony Internet gambling venture was sentenced to eight years in federal prison Monday. Robert Louis Syrax, 57, was convicted on several counts of money laundering and wire and mail fraud. He was also ordered to repay about $4.5 million to about 500 people who trusted him with their money. "People don't expect they are going to be told outright lies," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellyn Lindsay.

Seniors are logging onto the Internet faster than any other age group. But these seniors aren't just checking out bargains at Internet auction sites, a lot of them are creating their own Web sites. Some of the Web site subjects that seniors are developing and logging onto include: Family History and Genealogy sites to educate and even locate family members. Commemorative sites that honor a time, place or person from the past. Sentimental sites provide a great service, particularly those that deal with grief and overcoming loss.

For those still behind the swift wave that is the Internet, the Newport Beach Public Library is offering a chance to catch up and become web savvy. The “Tuesday at Two” training classes start Jan. 8 and teach hands-on instruction revolving around e-mail, search engines, using e-Bay, and using the Internet as a research tool. There will be 15 individual classes offered over a four-month period. The classes are free, but are kept small in order to preserve personal attention.

For the second time in as many weeks, we find ourselves issuing warnings about the travails of the Internet. First, it was an apparent growing trend by young people to videotape their schoolyard brawls and subsequently post the video on YouTube for all to see. Now we learn that a UCI police dispatcher, no less, is accused of posting photos of young water polo players from Newport Harbor High and other local schools on a gay pornographic website....

Parents have a chance to learn whether they have the tools and knowledge necessary to help their kids navigate the Web when the Newport Beach Police Department hosts an Internet-safety seminar Wednesday. Police officials will walk parents through some of the dangers on the Internet and what they can do to keep their kids from clicking on the wrong site or talking to the wrong person. Are you equipped to keep up with your child’s online activity? Does your child participate in online gaming, and do they communicate with strangers?

COSTA MESA - There's not much left on the stockroom shelves of Cal's Cameras & Video except for decades-old boxes of glass slides, now considered relics in this era of digital photography. The store at 1770 Newport Blvd. once boasted an inventory of more than 1 million units, overflowing with photographic paper, film and developing supplies, and annual sales of about $10 million, said Cal's founder, Cal Stilley, 87. "The wall used to [be] full of all types of photographic paper and chemicals," he said of his showroom's far wall, which is now lined by two digital print stations.

Piloteers don't have Doppler 7000 or any other technological weather-predicting doodads, but according to a school weather report researched by a Newport Beach councilman's son, we're holding our own. Scott Ridgeway, the 10-year-old son of Councilman Tod Ridgeway, compared the Daily Pilot's Surf and Sun weather forecast to Internet forecasts and discovered that the Pilot fared better over the 36 days he monitored....

ENVIRONMENT "It's an area where federal investment money is well spent. I have opposed a good deal of spending in Washington, but I have strongly supported the record increases in funding for environmental protection in the last four years. It's meant cleaner air and cleaner water for us in Southern California." REGULATING THE INTERNET "The Internet provides an extraordinary challenge to the regulatory bureaucracy. If the government takes the view that it can define and regulate the Internet, it is bound not only to fail -- but also to do irreparable damage to the Internet's continued growth in the process."

Sue Doyle Rep. Christopher Cox led the drive to protect commerce on the World Wide Web, scoring a victory when the House voted Wednesday to delay adding any new Internet taxes until 2006. Cox (R-Newport Beach) launched the bill to prevent Internet taxation at the federal, state and local levels in February. "The new economy empowers individuals, but only if they can afford to participate," Cox said. "Lawmakers who care about the digital divide shouldn't tax the Internet."

Irvine police are looking for more victims of a woman they say used Internet dating sites to target Korean men in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Police arrested Sunmee Kim, 36, on Dec. 21 on outstanding warrants issued from both counties. Kim was arrested a week after falsely reporting, under a stolen identity, that she was the victim of domestic violence, according to a police news release. Kim used the report to remove the victim, a 44-year old Irvine businessman she had met on Koreancupid.com, from his home.

COSTA MESA - There's not much left on the stockroom shelves of Cal's Cameras & Video except for decades-old boxes of glass slides, now considered relics in this era of digital photography. The store at 1770 Newport Blvd. once boasted an inventory of more than 1 million units, overflowing with photographic paper, film and developing supplies, and annual sales of about $10 million, said Cal's founder, Cal Stilley, 87. "The wall used to [be] full of all types of photographic paper and chemicals," he said of his showroom's far wall, which is now lined by two digital print stations.

The Newport Beach Police Department has joined the Internet Crimes Task Force partnering with Los Angeles police to address child pornography cases. Newport Beach police joined the 13-year-old task force after the Los Angeles Police Department approached the NBPD in July. "By joining this task force NBPD detectives are provided with the specialized training and resources to proactively target online predators and keep them from victimizing children who live in this city," Sgt. Shontel Sherwood, of the Juvenile Crimes and Sexual Assault unit, said in an email.

In an effort to create a balanced budget and some fiscal stability in California, Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrats in the California Legislature finally passed a budget over continued Republican intransigence over the Democrats' desire to raise revenues rather than cut services like K-12 schools. Democrats sidestepped Republicans by finding a means to generate revenue without raising taxes (in fact, sales-tax rates are down now) by closing a loophole in the law that had allowed Internet giants like Amazon.com and Overstock.com to avoid collecting sales taxes on their Internet sales.

Updated from an earlier version COSTA MESA — In an effort to crack down on illegal immigration, Mayor Allan Mansoor will ask the city to study a plan that would require employers to use E-Verify, a federal database that screens the immigration status of job applicants. The issue is being brought forward at the request of Mayor Allan Mansoor, a staunch critic of illegal immigration. "It's one piece of the puzzle; it's not going to solve everything," he said. "It has to be addressed on a larger scale by other cities as well.

Scientists at UC Irvine are developing a way to create a modern version of the house call. Researchers at the university’s California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) are working on Telios, a software package that would allow doctors to monitor and consult with patients remotely. It “allows a physician to come into your home without actually coming into your home,” said co-principal investigator Mark Bachman. Telios, or Telepresence Interactive Operating System, relies on Web-based technology that many patients are familiar with; it’s similar to the chat option in Facebook or how webcams are used in Skype.

As a journalist, I’m used to readers telling me what’s what when it comes to something — anything — in the paper. It’s true what they say: Everyone’s a critic. And I welcome the criticism. It enables me to grow and learn from my mistakes. This week City Editor Imran Vittachi handed me a letter from a reader, saying he believed it was for the copy desk. Inside the envelope was not the winner for an Academy Award, but a tear sheet of the Feb. 13 Society page with a misspelling circled (“underwiting” is the new craze of being not very smart or funny at social gatherings and certainly not “underwriting” missing an R)

Costa Mesa officials are exploring the idea of making the city a test lab for Google’s foray into the Internet service provider market. Google is searching for cities with populations of 50,000 to 500,000 to test its fiber-optic service at a low cost, according to a company news release. The Mountain View-based company says its targeted speed of 1 gigabit a second would be between 100 and 1,000 times faster than other Internet companies’. Israel Torres, a Costa Mesa resident, has approached Councilwomen Wendy Leece and Katrina Foley about the venture.