House Joint Resolution 37, which was approved by a vote of 240 to 179, was spurred by the F.C.C.’s approval in December of an order titled “Preserving the Open Internet.” The order forbids the companies that provide the pipeline through which consumers gain access to the Internet from blocking a user’s ability to reach legal Internet sites or to use legal applications.

Last month, at RSA, which produces SecurID tokens, an employee received an e-mail entitled “2011 Recruitment Plan” and clicked on its Excel attachment. This released a program that gave hackers access to the company’s network and allowed them to lift information about the tokens.

People don’t like video conferences today because it’s more like watching ‘Hollywood Squares’ than being in a meeting,” Dr. Blascovich says. “You want the feeling of sitting at the table and having a full view looking around, seeing the side conversations and gazes that people are giving each other. In our lab, we can already give you that feeling by putting your avatar in a virtual conference room.

It could be another inroad for Facebook to convince mainstream users that checking in, both to places and events, is a normal and customary thing to do. And in doing so, it could offer brands another reason to host events on Facebook instead of the plethora of other invite and event sites, such as Eventbrite or Plancast.

They’re supernervous about Facebook,” he said. “Google’s not strong in the rear view mirror. Google’s strong when they’re looking out their windshield.

Though Google prides itself on giving engineers access to its code base to invent new products, it blocked the engineers in China because it said government officials might force them to reveal private information.

A first-grade teacher in Paterson, N.J., was suspended on Thursday after she posted on her Facebook page that she felt like a warden overseeing future criminals, district officials said.

Microsoft’s position as accuser in an anti-competition case is something of a role reversal. In the past, the world’s leading software company has been the target of similar actions.

Like the dreaded telescreen in George Orwell’s “1984,” technologies like the Internet and cellphones are proving just as useful for spying as they are for communicating, making the choice to hit “call” or “send” an increasingly risky one.