Friday Tech Links: Comcast and the NFL spar, Conficker and domain extensions

4/17/09 11:09 a.m. Update amended: Thanks Jim!
In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun.
Because that’s what we do best.

• USA Today reports that a “seemingly endless stream” of new domain extensions, like .philly, could join traditional fare like .com and .org next year under a landmark change approved last summer by the Orwellian-named Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the entity that oversees the Web’s address system.

Below see more stories you need to be sure you saw, including our most trafficked of the week.

• The Associated Press reports that Comcast and DirecTV will pay $3.2 million in FTC fines to settle claims they solicited people who had requested not to be contacted.
• Comcast has said it will return $15,000 given to its political-action committee from Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider, who is part of a Pennsylvania ban on political donations from casino investors.
• The Inquirer’s Joe Distefano reports on an Obama administration plan to develop a high-speed train line between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It details how, Distefano writes, but “it doesn’t explain why anyone would want to.”
• PC World reports that this Conficker worm every cable-news show is talking about is supposed to make money, not cause harm — you know, like Bear Sterns – but more than 10 percent of home PCs remain unprotected.
  
• The Franklin Institute Learning Center is opening its newest traveling exhibition on Star Trek, making its East Coast debut on Saturday May 16.

Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: Shop Talk: Keith McGinnis of Review Publishing on the Philadelphia Weekly redesign
Every Friday morning we make sure you didn’t miss anything if you spent the week mourning the death of Harry the K, with Friday Tech Links. See others here.