Triple threat targets Word users

What's the advantage of the "Patch Tuesday" concept again?

Reuters debuts machine-readable news for automatic stock trading -- hilarity ensues

Again, I welcome our new robot overlords.

UK surveillance cams may get mic'ed up to detect aggression

Online Grocers Can Bring You Many Things, They Just Can't Deliver A Profit

IBM Touts Smart Surveillance System

"For example, the IBM system would let a user search for all instances of a green car passing by a store on a certain day. It can also incorporate data gathered from audio or chemical sensors. "

Company fined $3m for adware use

One down, 47 godzillion to go.

Seagate to encrypt data on hard drives

"The world's largest hard drive maker says its DriveTrust Technology automatically encrypts every bit of data stored on the hard drive and requires users to have a key, or password, before being able to access the disk drive."

Vista to Allow "One Significant" Hardware Upgrade

" Vista will permit one 'significant' hardware change before requiring users to either appeal to Microsoft support or purchase another license."

Pornography, gambling, lies, theft and terrorism: The Internet sucks

"The idealists who conceived and pioneered the Web described a kind of enlightened utopia built on mutual understanding, a world in which knowledge is limited only by one's curiosity. Instead, we have constructed a virtual Wild West, where the masses indulge their darkest vices, pirates of all kinds troll for victims, and the rest of us have come to accept that cyberspace isn't the kind of place you'd want to raise your kids."

It's the next best thing to a Babel fish

"Imagine mouthing a phrase in English, only for the words to come out in Spanish. That is the promise of a device that will make anyone appear bilingual, by translating unvoiced words into synthetic speech in another language."

Windows virus bites Apple iPods

"Apple is warning that some video iPods are harbouring a Windows virus. "

Fun solutions to serious problems

"Scientists and researchers from around the world have been exhibiting their gadgets at New York's WIRED NextFest. And some of these products have the potential to change lives. "

Ian Pearson, Futurologist: The ITWales Interview

"Specialising in the long term, Pearson uses his background in science and engineering, together with analytical tools, business skills and good old fashioned common sense to develop his predictions. "

Microsoft 'taking security risks'

"Microsoft is taking security risks with its forthcoming Vista operating system, says software firm McAfee. "

Internet crime to hit homes hard

"Home computer users are now the favourite targets of hi-tech criminals, reveals research. "

Weird Al's 'White & Nerdy' Hits Home (Pages)

"Weird Al Yankovic's latest parody music video "White & Nerdy," has become an instant classic online because the lyrics include a surprising number of very relevant computer-geek references, including MySpace, Minesweeper, "killer apps," JavaScript, Segways, ergonomic keyboards, Wikipedia, "ROTFLOL," and HTML. Here comes the (music) VIDEO! "

The Impact of Social Networking on Society

"The latest edition of New Scientist has a series of features on social networking. These include an analysis of the impact on our social attitudes by Sherry Turkle, a feature on the possible privacy implications of using sites like MySpace and Friendster, and a short science fiction piece by Bruce Sterling. It's certainly interesting that so many people post very revealing stuff about themselves on these sites."

Zero-Day Team Launches with Emergency IE Patch

A dark horse security group formed after the WMF attacks in late 2005, the ZERT (Zero Day Emergency Response Team) has released a patch to attempt to slow the malware attacks on Windows attacks.

Sega Toys' Dream Pony is one freaky robot

Two-way OLED display could work as solar cell

Now why didn't you think of that?

Hotel Minibar Key Opens Diebold Voting Machines

CCTV Cameras In UK Get Loudspeakers

"In January 2004 there were more than 4,285,000 CCTV cameras in the UK (roughly 1 for every 4 households). "

Intel Core 2 Duo Vs. AMD AM2

Intel wins.

USB: Wayward Gadgets Find a Port

"The popularity of powering devices via computer has led to such products as USB-connecting toys, vacuums, paper shredders—even a lava lamp."

DRM Hole Sets Patch Speed Record For Microsoft

"Fixing this 'vulnerability' is in the company's best interest; never mind the customer.'"

Virginia Spammers Go To Jail, And Pay For It

"Perhaps because of this decision, spammers will soon find themselves on the receiving end of a million dollar class action suit.'"

Consumer Electronics Causing 'Death of Childhood'?

"...'is modern life too fast for the supple human mind? Do children have a rev counter we're red-lining by exposing them to so much input?''"

Are fake videos next?

"Dartmouth Professor Hany Farid already devised software tools to detect when someone has tampered with digital photos. His next challenge: determining whether video or audio files have been retouched. "

Will Solve Captcha for Money?

"But what good is this protection when you can hire "data entry specialists" to solve captchas for $0.60 per hour for 50 hours a week?"

Gene therapy rids men of cancer

"Two men have been cleared of deadly skin cancer using genetically modified versions of their own immune cells. "

Copyright tussles for Google

"As Google becomes more deeply interested in books and video, and expands its search domain beyond Web pages, it has found itself increasingly at odds with established copyright industries including book publishers, journalists, and professional photographers."

Intel Patches Wireless Vulnerabilities

"The three flaws are caused by faulty drivers used for wireless connection hardware."

Robbery averted via Beatles fan webcam in Liverpool

2006 Horizon Awards Winner: Stanford University's Password Hash

"By simply adding "@@" to the beginning of a password when registering on a Web site, PwdHash combines the user's password with the site's domain name in an algorithm that customizes a password for the user."

AutoMakers Will Disclose Black Boxes

Botnet Attack Sentence: 3 Years

"A man was sentenced to three years in prison Friday for launching a computer attack that hit tens of thousands of computers, including some belonging to the Department of Defense, a Seattle hospital and a California school district."

Qantas to Dell owners: Reveal thyselves!

"Due to the recent spate of flaming Dell notebooks and the subsequent, unprecedented battery recall, new Qantas regulations make it clear that no Dell laptops -- not even those unaffected by the recall -- are allowed to contain batteries while on the plane..."

Evidence-destroying defendant severely sanctioned in P2P file-sharing case

Man Gets 6 Years for Software Piracy

3-D TV That Actually Works

"A new line of 3-D televisions by Philips uses the familiar trick of sending slightly different images to the left and right eyes -- mimicking our stereoscopic view of the real world. "

Are you ready for the next industrial revolution?

"The transformation of the factory from a vast machine into a creative, knowledge-intensive space is a development few could have seen. "

Some Bands Still Refuse Music Downloads

"... while record companies once offered artists about 30 cents for each song sold, now musicians are earning less than a dime..."

Korea's Online Aggression a Taste of the Future?

"Imagine your life ruined by an organized mob that convicts with scant, unreliable evidence. Fueled only by hearsay and rumors, an invisible horde of your fellow citizens begins bombarding your snailbox, email, phone, work, school and family with threats, insults and general harassment."

T-Qualizer Music T-Shirt With Built-In Equalizer

"The T-Qualizer T-Shirt runs on four AAA batteries and has a built in sound sensitive graphic equalizer that moves to the beat of the music around you. "

Microsoft patch can cause IE trouble

"Microsoft's security update from Aug. 8 to Internet Explorer is causing browser trouble for some systems. "

Carnegie Mellon Researchers Develop New Type of Mobile Robot That Balances and Moves on a Ball Instead of Legs or Wheels

Official warning on Windows bugs

"The US Department of Homeland Security has urged Windows users to install the latest patches from Microsoft as quickly as possible."

Hackers meet to exploit computer flaws

"The game is the digital equivalent of capture the flag — but instead of kids trying to seize a tattered cloth in the backyard, these technophiles are searching for vulnerabilities that expose corporations and consumers to online criminals."

Low-tech lawmakers try to handle high-tech issues

"Almost daily when Congress is in session, lawmakers are struggling to comprehend new technology and the government's role in shaping its future."

AOL apology for search data error

"Internet giant AOL has apologised for releasing the search queries of more than 650,000 of its US subscribers. "

Google warns on 'unsafe' websites

"Google has started warning users if they are about to visit a webpage that could harm their computer. "

Child online safety card unveiled

"A virtual ID card designed to improve children's net safety has been launched in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. "

NaturallySpeaking Claims Voice Rec Breakthrough

"Version 9 of the software can offer 99 percent accuracy out of the box, company says."

Password on a credit card

"InCard Technologies has developed technology that can turn a credit card into a device that generates passwords for one-time use, for example for stronger authentication when banking online. "

Photos transformed into 3D model

"Microsoft's Photosynth takes collections of images, analyses them for similarities, and then displays them in a reconstructed 3D space. "

Control your laptop by hitting it

"Using a script called knockAge, owners of post-2003, Linux-powered ThinkPads with the Hard Drive Active Protection System can leverage the sensitivity of their machines' built-in accelerometers to perform almost any task imaginable simply by whacking the side of the LCD screen. "

RFID-enabled Vehicles: Pinch My Ride

"Their forensic examiner concluded that since all the keys were accounted for, there was no way the engine could have been started, despite the evidence that the ignition lock had been forced and the steering wheel locking lug had been damaged.'"

Does your PC have a good rep? To send e-mail, it better

"Nearly all of the Internet-connected computers that send e-mail are controlled by spammers, according to companies that track e-mail reputations. "

'Tourist Remover' Eliminates Unsightly Humans

"...from your photos. This free online service from FutureLAB can remove people who wander into frame while you're trying to take the ultimate snapshot. "

License Plate Tracking for All

"... laying out a vision of the future in which LPR does everything from helping insurance companies find missing cars to letting retail chains chart customer migrations. It could also let a nosy citizen with enough cash find out if the mayor is having an affair..."

Intelligent carpet

"... determines the weight, age, and sex of the individuals strolling across."

Microsoft tags IE 7 'high priority' update

"Microsoft plans to automatically push Internet Explorer 7 to Windows XP users when the browser update is ready later this year. "

Microsoft's latest is flat-out impressive

"Microsoft researchers are developing a system that turns a tabletop, desktop or other smooth horizontal surface into a computer display and user interface."

Rootkits get better at hiding

"A new Trojan horse is so good at hiding itself that some security researchers claim a new chapter has begun in their battle against malicious-code authors. "

Rootkits get better at hiding

"A new Trojan horse is so good at hiding itself that some security researchers claim a new chapter has begun in their battle against malicious-code authors. "

Dell blog discusses shovelware

"Many of us spend the first few hours with a new PC removing a ton of trial software, ISP offers, and unwanted applications that are pre-installed by OEMs."

Poisoned PowerPoint attacks users

"Users are being told to take care because it could be weeks before Microsoft produces a patch that protects against the security loophole."

Tiny wireless memory chip debuts

"A chip the size of a grain of rice that can store 100 pages of text and swaps data via wireless has been developed by Hewlett-Packard. "

Google to Put a Research Center in Michigan

"...an office and research center here that will have up to 1,000 employees..."

Fuji's New Camera Gets in Your Face

"Camera can find human faces, and optimizes focus and exposure on them."

Brain sensor allows mind-control

"A sensor implanted in a paralysed man's brain has enabled him to control objects by using his thoughts alone. "

DARPA's Cortically-Coupled Computer Vision System

"Essentially, it uses the extremely powerful visual recognition ability of the human brain and couples it with a computer's raw processing power to allow a user wearing an EEG cap to filter through scores of digital images at high-speed and pick out something of interest."

State Department Hit With Many More Break-Ins

"CNN is reporting that the US State Department has been dealing with a number of computer break-ins with regards to their headquarters and offices dealing with China and Korea over the past couple of weeks."

Worst tech of Q2 2006

"Like with a bad movie that achieves cult status because it's just that bad, we love to hate something about these unlucky 13 products and downloadable duds from the past three months. "

'Magnetic memory' chip unveiled

"A microchip which can store information like a hard drive has been unveiled by US company Freescale. "

Hackers Fine-Tuning Trojan Attacks

"Improved computer security drives cybercrooks to change their tactics."

Trojan Horses on the Rise

"Updated Sophos report finds a huge drop in viruses and worms--and increase in other malicious attacks."

MS: 20% of WGA failures not caused by pirated keys

"You don't need to look very hard to find outraged Windows customers who have been branded pirates by Windows Genuine Authentication. "

One Cheap Desktop for All

"The $150 Municator packs a 40-GB hard drive, a DVD drive, Wi-Fi, 256 MB of RAM and a 400/800-MHz Godson processor. "

10 cutting-edge network research projects you should know about

Superfast internet cafe launches

"An internet cafe offering connections 50 times faster than typical broadband services has opened in Cornwall, England. "

Magnetic fields created using nanotechnology could make computers up to 500 times more powerful, if new research is successful.

"But if this research is successful, it could make computers with wireless semi-conductors a possibility within five or ten years of the end of the project. Then computers could be made anything from 200 to 500 times quicker and still be the same size."

Test Tube Burgers by 2009?

"A team of researchers hope to create lab-grown meat by 2009 that smells and tastes just like the real thing. "

Advertisers Thrilled About New Ways To Irritate Readers

"Though the rise of pop-up blockers is a clear indication that users don't like intrusive advertising, publishers haven't stopped looking for ways to annoy their readers. "

In Case You Weren't Clear On How The Telcos Screwed Everyone

"... the telcos were granted all sorts of subsidies and benefits in exchange for promising to delivering high speed fiber to our homes -- something they've still never done..."

Where To Go For Biggest Data Leaks? Our Own Government

"The preferred method of acquisition? Unattended laptops. When that fails, crooks fall back to tapes, printouts, web postings, inside theft and other tricks wholly dependent on bureaucratic incompetence."

Can Retailers Who Provide Free WiFi Get Freeloaders Arrested?

The Corruptables: Don't Let Them Steal Your HD

All that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.

Users of Aged Windows Face Risk

"Microsoft warns of security problems for Windows 98, 98 SE and Me, all finally phased out."

USB Air Conditioned Shirt

"When it comes to USB powered gadgets, this doesn’t just take the cake, it takes the entire bakery and then burns it down for the insurance money."

Google listens to screen

"A system that lets your computer 'listen' to your television to create targeted web adverts has been designed and tested by researchers at Google." Yikes.

Security Now!

"Our weekly audio security column & podcast by Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte"

IP Address Locator - Enter an IP address to find its location - Lookup Country Region City etc

Not perfect, but interesting. My home IP shows a city near me, where I suppose my ISP has registrered the IP range; at work it shows a location thousands of miles from here, but again, I presume that's where my workplace network joins the internet.

Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics

VoIP's Security Vulnerabilities

Microsoft Talks Daily With Your Computer

It may be genuine, but it's no advantage.

Windows uses 20% of your bandwidth; get it back

Cleopatra the Electronic Home Attendant

"She greets each resident in the home by name, announces visitors, phone calls, voice mails, emails and deliveries. Cleopatra shows who is home, pictures of recent visitors at the front door, the local weather forecast, stock market changes, and even the national security level."

The Worst Bill You've Never Heard Of

"Simply put, SIRA fundamentally redefines copyright and fair use in the digital world. "

Teen ringtone too high-pitched for teachers

"Now all the kids in class can hear cell phones, which have been banned in most classrooms, but the teachers can't."

The 10 Worst Engineering Mistakes of All Time

11th Circuit to Webmasters: Telling Someone To Go Away Doesn't Make Them

"The Eleventh Circuit in the case of Snow v. DirecTV held that a webmaster may not exclude certain persons from his site merely by telling them their access is unauthorized."

Why Web 2.0 Will End Your Privacy

Robots Help Hospitalized Students Keep Up

"The robot in the classroom, which displays a live picture of Achim, provides what its inventors call "telepresence": It gives the boy an actual presence in the classroom, recognized by teachers and classmates. It can move from class to class on its four-wheel base and even stop at the lockers for a between-periods chat."

Visual Tour: 20 Things You Won't Like About Windows Vista

ProcessID Home Page

"ProcessID.com is a website dedicated to help computer users keep their computer running free of parasites like spyware, viruses and Trojan horses. " Lists commonly-found process names and helps you figure out if they're okay.

Free Nationwide Wireless Internet Access?

Web inventor warns of 'dark' net

"The web should remain neutral and resist attempts to fragment it into different services, web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said. "

Privacy worries over web's future

"The next phase of the web could face 'big privacy' issues, a senior UK academic has warned. "

Warning from Apple: don't put our laptops on your lap

The Eternal Value of Privacy

How to respond to "If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?".

Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before

"Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest."

Scotland to Keep Detailed Records On All Kids

"But don't worry, lads. It's all for your protection."

Google to Distribute Online Video Ads

"For instance, a news story about housing might prompt Google to display an ad for real estate agents."

20 FAQs about Windows Vista

The Intelligent Scarecrow fights back against birds

Microsoft GroupShot

"Microsoft GroupShot enables you to combine multiple photos of the same scene and create a composite image, that eliminates or exchanges parts of the original photos with parts of a nearly identical shot from the same sequence. "

MS Word Zero-Day Exploit Found

"The exploit arrives as an ordinary Microsoft Word document attachment to an e-mail and drops a backdoor with rootkit features when the document is opened and the previously unknown vulnerability is triggered. "

Microsoft reveals Vista checklist

"Microsoft has revealed how powerful computers must be to run Vista - the new version of its Windows operating system. "

Physics Warning Labels

example: "Handle with Extreme Care: This Product Contains Minute Electrically Charged Particles Moving at Velocities in Excess of Five Hundred Million Miles per Hour."

Epson Stops E-Tailers From Selling Off-Brand Ink Cartridges

Apple rival 'tries to ban iPods'

"Digital music player maker Creative Technology has asked a US court to ban Apple from selling or marketing its iconic iPods in the US. "

Virtual Reality with 100 Million Pixels

One step closer to the holodeck.

Skype is Free in US and Canada

Free computer-to-phone calls for the rest of the year.

Google Cheat Sheets

"This two page Google Cheat Sheet lists all Google services and tools as well as background information. The Cheat Sheet offers a great reference to grasp of basic to advance Google query building concepts and ideas."

Google Cheat Sheets

"This two page Google Cheat Sheet lists all Google services and tools as well as background information. The Cheat Sheet offers a great reference to grasp of basic to advance Google query building concepts and ideas."

Electronic Big Brother

"A report from a non-profit privacy watchdog organization offers the exact opposite conclusion: technology is making it easier and easier for the government to spy on its citizens, and laws to protect individual privacy are very outdated. "

The NSA Knows Who You've Called

Goodby, Privacy! Say hello to Civil Rights when you get there!

Tech Workers of the World Unite?

"The rich get richer, the shareholder is valued more than the employee, jobs are eliminated in the name of bottom-line efficiency (remember when they called firing people 'right-sizing'?) and the gulf between the rich and the working class grows wider every year. "

Google Choking on Spam Sites

"'Those machines are full,' he said. 'We have a huge machine crisis.'"

UN Broadcasting Treaty May Restrict Speech

"It is dangerous and inappropriate for an unelected international treaty body to undertake the task of creating entirely new rights, which currently exist in no national law, such as webcasting rights and anti-circumvention laws related to broadcasting. "

The Future of the Internet

"What if I-95 announced an exclusive deal with General Motors to provide a special "rush-hour" lane for GM cars only?"

Spam Gets Personal

"Two researchers demonstrate how much more effective spam could become if its authors used basic data-mining to personalize their messages. " Then those two researchers were slapped silly by the rest of us.

Fujitsu announces 1.3 petabyte array

1,024 gigabytes = 1 terrabyte; 1,024 terrabytes = a petabyte, so this system comprises 1,363,148.8 gigs of hard drive space. How many MP3s would *that* hold?

The Brain Port, neural tongue interface of the future

No teaser/blurb can do better than that title, so we'll just leave that as-is. You may pretend that these sentences do not exist.

YamiPod - standalone iPod manager

Break the chains of iTunes!

Windows Live Goes to College

But with 78 problems and stupid design flaws per square inch, it shouldn't.

video projectors now small enough for cell phones

"should hit the market in about one year"

Intellicot

Finally! Someone has produced a crib that will do most of the parenting for you. It rocks the baby, uses a fan to keep it cool, monitors it via video, and even raises it up to you when you have to interact.

The Ultimate Chair for gamers, geeks

"An $800 plush swiveling chair from Hammacher Schlemmer features Air Force simulator technology for producing lifelike sounds and vibrations from any PC, video game console or TV that you plug into it. "

Judge Rules in Favor of Websurfing at Work

"'It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work.'' "

Brain games aim to boost your IQ

"Computer games have long been derided by critics as mindless, brain-rotting fun."

Top 10 Windows XP Tips Of All Time

"Here you'll find the tips that give you the most bang for your buck; that are most useful in terms of security, functionality, and PC performance..."

J.J. Abrams To Direct New 'Star Trek' Film

"The movie will be set at Starfleet Academy and will feature younger versions of James T. Kirk and Spock, chronicling their first meeting at the Academy and their first outer space mission."

Embedded experts: Fix code bugs or cost lives

"People's lives as well as millions of dollars in investments often depend on software engineering, but too many projects fail for lack of good programming discipline and management support."

Embedded experts: Fix code bugs or cost lives

"People's lives as well as millions of dollars in investments often depend on software engineering, but too many projects fail for lack of good programming discipline and management support."

Gonzales calls for mandatory Web labeling law

"Web site operators posting sexually explicit information must place official government warning labels on their pages or risk being imprisoned for up to five years, the Bush administration proposed Thursday. "

Philips Patents Technology to Force Ad Viewing

But, they explain, you can always pay a fee to be able to fast-forward again. Thanks, Philips!

Prez a Music Thief, According to RIAA

"Don’t feel so bad that your iPod contains illegally-obtained music, because US President George Bush has also been stealing music."

Health Problems Related to the Geek Lifestyle

And no, "Mountain Dew Elbow" isn't one of them.

Search users 'stop at page three'

More like page one.

Natural light to reinvent bulbs

"The material, described in the journal Nature, can be printed in wafer thin sheets that could transform walls, ceilings or even furniture into lights." And might reach 100% efficiency!

Users urged to fix browser flaw

"PC users are being urged to apply software patches that close 'critical' vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows. "

Caveat eBay Emptor

"It didn't have to be this way if eBay had kept focusing on its core product, instead of chasing the grail of growth at all costs."

How Dare You Actually Want Secure And Valid Elections?!?

RIAA Recommends Students Drop out of College

TV's flat new world

"Television as you've always known it is about to be history. "

Build you own PVR, then trash it

"Plummeting storage costs and the availability of special hardware have finally made it cheap and easy to shrug off the shackles of TiVo and build your own personal video recorder out of an old PC."

America's War on the Web

"... the Pentagon says it will wage war against the internet in order to dominate the realm of communications, prevent digital attacks on the US and its allies, and to have the upper hand when launching cyber-attacks against enemies.'"

ATI's 1GB Video Card

Bad web browser bug gets patched

"Security firms have released patches for a critical loophole in Microsoft's browser that leaves users open to attack. "

Microsoft warns on browser bugs

It must be a day of the week that ends in "y".

Be smarter at work, slack off

"In a world of too much work and too much multitasking, the best way to beat the competition may be to do less."

The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites

"ugly websites are surprisingly effective in making money."

BBC vows to reinvent web services

"The BBC has outlined plans to redesign its online offering for an era of on-demand TV and radio, and personalised web services. "

Chemists work on plastic promise

"A new plastic that could rival silicon as the material of choice for some electronic devices has been developed. "

McAfee Anti-Virus Causes Widespread File Damage

"McAfee in response released advice to restore the files". Hey, great advice! Thanks.

Wi-fi promises internet shake-up

"... widespread wireless access being touted as the force behind the net's next wave of innovation. "

Robot Cares For Elderly (So You Don't Have To?)

"RI-MAN is soft and fuzzy, and has 320 sensors, so it knows when it's being kicked in the face by a freaked out geriatric."

Slapping on a coat of silence

"Company says its high-tech paint will block cell phone calls" ... on demand!

Caller ID Spoofing, Other Phoner HAcks, Become Easy

New Jersey Bill Would Prohibit Anonymous Posts on Forums

Geekcorps: A Peace Corps for Techies

The utlimate PC case: a desk

"... the integrated design eliminates visible cables and maximizes the convenience of USB ports and CD/DVD drive."

Fur flies over Google desktop privacy

"Google Desktop 3's 'invasiveness' is criticised as institutions ban it wholesale from their networks."

New Flexible Ski 'Armor' Hardens On Impact - Gizmodo

"The US and Canadian ski teams are sporting a new garb that they now supposedly refuse to ski without: a lightweight material in their body suits that hardens in less than a thousandth of a second, then instantly flexes again. "

Bubo, The Hax0ring Owl

Excellent!

OS X Struck By Severe Security Hole

Which Windows Vista will you run? You have 8 choices.

"Hey Bob! This restaurant has 12 different types of crap sandwich!"

Petabyte disks coming in 5 years?

Finally, room for all of my pictures of myself.

Unipage - A PDF Alternative?

Because the only good PDF is a dead PDF.

RIAA: Ripping CDs to iPod not 'Fair Use'

And this is why the RIAA needs to be rebooted.

GlucoTrack Non-Invasively Measures Blood Sugar

"GlucoTrack is a non-invasive glucometer that uses a combination of ultrasound, conductivity and heat capacity to measure glucose levels via an ear clip. "

US, Canadian Olympic skiers get skintight armor

"Some American and Canadian skiers competing in the Olympics have a secret weapon: a flexible form of "body armor" that's molded to the shape of their bodies and hardens on impact."

Matchbox-sized Laser Projector

" It's small enough to fit into a cellphone or PDA. Some specs: Supports resolutions up to 2048x1280; No moving parts; Infinite focus; Green monochrome, with a colour version expected late 2006"

Mixed-Reality Party In DC and Second Life

"The whole world is invited to attend in DC or Second Life, whichever's closer for you."

The cars of tomorrow

"Concept cars are as close as the auto industry gets to haute couture. "

Quote of the Day

"As with any scientific endeavor, whether it's the splitting of the atom or a 25-cent tracking device, it's up to us to decide whether to use it for good or ill. Unfortunately, our track record on that score is not very encouraging." - Ephrain Schwartz, "Reality Check" column, Infoworld, Vol. 27, #13, 2005-03-28, P.18. (The column is mostly positive about the potential good of RFID.)

US plans massive data sweep

"The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity. "

Privacy fears hit Google search

"A leading US digital rights campaign group has warned against using Google software which lets people organise and find information on their computers. "

Microsoft opens up censored blogs

"... blogs or journals blocked inside one nation would remain readable outside that country. "

Quote of the Day

"Byte for byte, there's far more innovation coming out of the dark basement of a few clever virus writers than from the big software companies who are trying to advance technology and truly innovate. On one side we have smart programmers who are trying to pack more and more functionality into a smaller and smaller size. On the other side, we have smart programmers at large companies building applications faster than ever before, bigger than ever before, using rapid development tools that allow human beings to design software with more holes and flaws than ever before." - Kelly Martin, "Complexity Kills Innovation", _SecurityFocus_, 2005-02-17.

Another Spammer Bites the Dust

"... must pay more than $5 million in penalties to America Online, a federal judge ruled."

Ancient Flaws May Leave OSX Vulnerable

Researchers: Rootkits headed for BIOS

"'Rootkits are becoming more of a threat in general--BIOS is just the next step,' Heasman said during a presentation at the conference. "

Anti-spyware project helps users

"Hi-tech firms are setting up a project to help users spot if downloads are infested with spyware and adware. "

Cingular Patents the Emoticon?

"My response? >:/ "

Google's Action Makes A Mockery Of Its Values

"... Google's announcement Tuesday that it will comply with China's repressive laws by doctoring its search results in that country makes a mockery of those values. "

One step closer to the Universal Translator!

"They have made a portable gadget that translates between English, German, French, Chinese, Italian and Spanish."

American owns up to hijacking PCs

"A 20-year-old American has admitted hijacking thousands of computers and using them to send out spam"

Firefox 's Ping Attribute: Useful or Spyware?

"Now links can have a 'ping' attribute that contains a list of servers to notify when you click on a link."

Big Content would like to outlaw things no one has even thought of yet

"... can Big Content really be trying to put a blanket freeze on innovation and outlaw any possible novel use at all of copyrighted digital broadcast content?"

Inventor develops anti-malaria wristwatch

"The sturdy digital timepiece pricks the wrist with a tiny needle four times a day and tests the blood for malaria parasites." I just hope you can set it to not test you during sleeping hours.

History's Worst Software Bugs

Including some that have caused multiple fatalities.

How to kill unruly Windows processes

How to kill unruly Windows processes "Here’s how to kill an unruly Windows process (fer instance, if you find a spyware app that just won’t die): get the process ID from the Task Manager. Click Start, Run, and paste in “drwtsn32 -p xxx”, where xxx is the PID, and click OK." taken from http://unxmaal.com/wordpress/?p=1729

The Lingering Effects Of Identity Theft

"... their incorrect data gets spread to so many other companies so quickly, with absolutely no recourse."

What will they think of next?

"Researchers have come up with a list of the best innovations from last year, ranging from a 'healthy' whisky to a kit for would-be parents to find out the sex of their baby"

Anonymity Won't Kill the Internet

"EBay's feedback system works because each anonymous nickname comes with a record of previous transactions attached, and if someone cheats someone else then everybody knows it."

Celebrity Phone Record Hacking As A New Pasttime

"... AmericaBlog went and purchased Gen. Wesley Clark's cell phone records from November"

Just in Time for Mother's Day

"The eStarling is a 5.6-inch WiFi-enabled picture frame. Photos can be e-mailed directly to the frame, or loaded from an MMC/SD card. Better yet, the eStarling will pick up my flickr RSS feed and display that."

Lucent's snooze-catcher for DVRs

Sweet! A device that pauses playback (even live shows) if it catches you falling asleep. Now if they can just tweak it to FF through the commercials if you stick your tongue out...

The Choice Between DRM and Security

"the developers of DRM technologies seem to believe that computers are nothing more than personal entertainment systems for consumers. This belief is convenient, because creating DRM mechanisms that respect security, safety, and reliability concerns is going to be an expensive and complex engineering task."

B&O's Advanced Sound System for Audi includes pop-up speakers for the dash

For $7,000, there better be some visuals involved.

Flash memory to rival hard drives

"The latest Flash memory chips may prove a viable substitute for hard disks in power-critical applications."

New device can see trhough concrete walls

German privacy hackers develop RFID zapper

Rogue antispyware vendors fined

The Ultimate Geek Car?

"Night vision, onboard radar, computer-controlled brakes and acceleration -- for $100,000, the new Mercedes S-Class offers everything but an ejector seat."

Levi makes iPod controlling jeans

In other news, gadget madness swallows the Earth.

Trolling Is Now Illegal: Two Years In Jail

"The specific text says that using the internet 'without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy... shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.' "

Security Vendor McAfee to Pay $50 Million Fine

Spammer Gets $11 Billion Fine

It will take hima few weeks to pay it off.

Close the Windows Hole

"Microsoft publicly announced last week -- after security firms had already scooped the software maker -- yet another Windows vulnerability for which the company has yet to release security patches. But this bug is a lot more lethal than your typical buffer overflow."

Sony: If You're Bankrupt, You Must Delete All Our Music

Good gravy, are they *trying* to get us to put them out of business?!

Driving Away Teens With Buzz

"The consultant's other anti-loitering tools include "zit lamps", special blue lights that accentuate teens' pimples and blemishes, hoping they won't hang out in places where they won't look good."

Polticians Against Spam... Unless They're The Ones Spamming

Subverting Austrian government spycams

"...they've since upgraded to techniques that scramble camera signals and even intercept their video feeds and automatically place black stripes over peoples' eyes."

Industry Feeling Presence of the 800-Pound Google

"Sources say Google has been in negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., among other retailers, to sell a Google PC. The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft's Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap — perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars."