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."