hawaii

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Electrosensitive community moving to a secluded town in Green Bank, Va.

- Facebook fixes comment threads for Pages and public figure.

- A promising 'Home' for the Facebook obsessed.

- Five ways to get more out of Facebook Home.

- Prepare a digital will for your Google accounts.

- Roger Ebert's Twitter lives on.

- Microsoft exec reportedly leaves job following testy Xbox tweets.… Read more

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who last year purchased his own Hawaiian island, bought a small airline that services the island chain.

Island Air announced the acquisition in a press release today that noted there would be no staff or operational changes as a result of its sale to Ellison. Financial terms of the transaction were not revealed.

"We are excited Mr. Ellison has acquired Island Air. He has the vision and resources to literally take Island Air to new heights," Island Air President Les Murashige said in a statement published by the Associated Press. The airline announced last … Read more

We've all been there: You excitedly start to plan a vacation to some place you've never been, but once you get into the thick of it, you realize that figuring out what to do, let alone making bookings for everything from restaurants to museums to hotels to tours, is exhausting business.

That's the problem that Peek.com, a San Francisco startup that launched today, is trying to solve. Aiming to be a traveler's one-stop shop for everything from identifying what to do when on the road to booking to special recommendations for how to spend a &… Read more

Larry Ellison has closed a deal to buy most of the Hawaiian island of Lanai for an undisclosed sum.

The Oracle chief executive has agreed to purchase 98 percent of the 141-square-mile island, Hawaii's sixth-largest by acreage, according to a statement issued today by the Hawaii governor's office. Current landowner Castle & Cooke filed a transfer application with the Public Utilities Commission.

Billionaire David Murdock, who has owned 98 percent of the island since 1985, is selling the land after reportedly losing between $18 million and $25 million each year on the island. The state of Hawaii owns … Read more

What do you do when you've got $500 million to spare? Get an island.

Bill Gates and Larry Ellison are interested in buying the same one, according to rumors floating around Hawaii.

Billionaire David Murdock wants to sell the island of Lanai, Hawaii's sixth-largest by acreage, and potential buyers could include the Microsoft founder and the Oracle CEO, Pacific Business News reported. The island, which may be worth more than $500 million, is expected to be sold soon.

Gates and his wife, Melinda, rented the island (the whole island, mind you) for their marriage in 1994, and Ellison … Read more

The Hawaii politician behind a proposed Internet tracking law acknowledged defeat today, saying that he recommends "that we kill this bill" this year.

State Representative John Mizuno, the lead sponsor of H.B. 2288 (PDF), bowed to what he described as an "incredible" national outcry that arose after a CNET article last week. His proposal would have required virtual dossiers to be compiled on state residents: two years' worth of their Internet browsing.

"It's generated a lot of national attention," Mizuno, a Democrat from Oahu, told CNET this afternoon. "I've taken … Read more

A Hawaii politician who proposed requiring Internet providers to record every Web site their customers visit is now backing away from the controversial legislation.

Rep. Kymberly Pine, an Oahu Republican and the House minority floor leader, told CNET this evening that her intention was to protect "victims of crime," not compile virtual dossiers on every resident of--or visitor to--the Aloha State who uses the Internet.

"We do not want to know where everyone goes on the Internet," Pine said. "That's not our interest. We just want the ability for law enforcement to be able … Read more

Hawaii might monitor all Web browsing, a Spotify app takes aim at Pandora, and Netflix's CEO expects DVD subscriber numbers to dwindle every quarter.

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Hawaii's legislature is weighing an unprecedented proposal to curb the privacy of Aloha State residents: requiring Internet providers to keep track of every Web site their customers visit.

Its House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing this morning on a new bill (PDF) requiring the creation of virtual dossiers on state residents. The measure, H.B. 2288, says "Internet destination history information" and "subscriber's information" such as name and address must be saved for two years.

H.B. 2288, which was introduced Friday, says the dossiers must include a list of Internet Protocol addresses … Read more