Fergie's Tech Blog: 01/08/2006

Hey, Baby Bells: Information Still Wants to Be Free

Randall Stross writes in The New York Times:

The digital lifestyle I see portrayed so alluringly in ads is not possible when the Internet plumbing in our homes is as pitiful as it is. The broadband carriers that we have today provide service that attains negative perfection: low speeds at high prices.

It gets worse. Now these same carriers - led by Verizon Communications and BellSouth - want to create entirely new categories of fees that risk destroying the anyone-can-publish culture of the Internet. And they are lobbying for legislative protection of their meddling with the Internet content that runs through their pipes. These are not good ideas.

More here.

In Bahrain, The Web Takes On The Ruling Elite

Neil MacFarquhar writes in The New York Times:

Ali Abdulemam, this country's most notorious blogger, sat in the boxlike reception room of his father's house in a cramped Shiite village dotted with raw cinder-block houses, trying to log onto the widely popular Web site that he founded.

The government on this flyspeck of an island nation, home to an American Navy base, recently renewed its effort to block dozens of opposition Web sites. So Mr. Abdulemam, 28, a computer engineer, had to spend about 10 minutes whipping through various computer servers around the world before finally pulling up his Web site, BahrainOnline.org.

More here.

Doctor Bans Boy From Playstation To Stop Head Twitching

Via Local6 News. (Central Florida)

A 9-year-old boy in California who suffered from uncontrollable head jerking movements after long hours of video game playing stopped the twitching after his doctor banned him from playing PlayStation, according to a report.

Nicholas Lavin said that he played PlayStation constantly over the holidays at his home in San Diego and began to notice that his head would jerk back and forth.

"I would do funny things with my head," Nicholas said.

Lavin's mother said her son began to twitch so badly that she took him to the family's pediatrician.

The doctor told her he was not allowed to play PlayStation anymore. Once he stopped playing PlayStation, the twitching stopped, according to the report.

Flu Viruses Becoming Resistent to Antiviral Drugs

An AP newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

The government, for the first time, is urging doctors not to prescribe two antiviral drugs commonly used to fight influenza because of concerns about drug resistance, officials announced Saturday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the recommendation covers the drugs rimantadine and amantadine during the current flu season.

"Laboratory testing by CDC on the predominant strain of influenza (H3N2) currently circulating in the United States shows that it is resistant to these drugs," according to a CDC statement.

User Friendly: Pablum for the Masses

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

Wal-Mart Employees Expose Terror Cell's Bulk Phone Purchase

Evan Blass writes over on Engadget:

ABC News is reporting on several incidents around the country wherein retail employees have been notifying local and federal authorities about bulk prepaid cellphone purchases (which, as in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, can be used as detonators). After the December 18th purchase of some 60 prepaid handsets by six individuals, Midland, TX Wal-Mart employees decided to call the local po-po, who turned the case over to the Feds when the men began acting suspiciously in custody.

The six were later linked to a Metroplex-based sleeper cell, although their current status and whereabouts are unknown. A similar case at a California Target store (man buys 150 cheapo prepaids) turned out to be on the level- the buyer was just purchasing the handsets for legitimate resale.

Google's Most Popular and Least Popular TLDs

William Slawski writes on his SEO by the Sea blog:

What are the most popularly used top level domains, or at least, which are the ones that show up on pages indexed in Google?

I wondered this yesterday after seeing a news article stating that the registration of .cn (china) top level domain names topped 1 million for the first time ever by the end of 2005. The seed for my wonderment was probably planted when EGOL, at Cre8asite Forums, asked about using a .info top level domain earlier that day.

So I decided to check to see which were the most popular in Google, since that was the easiest place to get some statistics.

More here.

SuperPages.com Ads Appear on MSN

Via internetnews.com.

Verizon's SuperPages.com wants to send more traffic to its local advertisers. MSN has the traffic, but it wants more local ad content.

In the ongoing drive for local advertising dollars, a $100 billion market by some estimates, this is how deals are born.

Looking at the WMF Issue: How Did it Get There?

Stephen Toulouse writes on The Microsoft Security Response Center blog:

Now that the monthly release has passed and people are deploying the updates I wanted to take a moment to discuss some things related to questions we’ve been receiving on the recent WMF issue. (Which was addressed in MS06-001).

One question we’ve gotten is about SetAbortProc, the function that allows printing jobs to be cancelled.

Specifically people are wondering about how the vulnerability was present. Bear with me, I’m going to get rather technical here in the interests of clearly pointing it out. The long story short is that the vulnerability can be triggered with either correct OR incorrect metafile record size values, there seems to have been some confusion on that point.

More here.

UK: NTL Under Fire Again for Poor Customer Service

William Eazel writes on vnunet.com:

NTL has admitted providing "unacceptable " levels of customer service. The cable company was targeted by the BBC’s Watchdog consumer affairs programme this week, following the receipt of a further 1,700 complaints from its cable TV, broadband and telephony customers.

In a reply to the Watchdog website, NTL acknowledged that “the standard of service experienced by the customers featured on your programme is unacceptable,” but claims that out of its 3.3m residential customers the number of complaints has been reduced to 0.31 per cent over the past four months. It added that the number of complaints received directly by NTL falling by over ten per cent during 2005.

Iraqi Telecom Chief Seeks to Build From Scratch

Arshad Mohammed writes in The Washington Post:

U.S. telecom regulation is not so different from Iraq's except for one fundamental thing.

"As I was telling the FCC, if you refuse somebody a license, at least they don't come and shoot at you," Siyamend Z. Othman, Iraq's top telecommunications regulator, said in an interview in Washington this week. "It comes with the job."

ShmooCon: Covert Crawler Descends on Web

Quinn Norton writes on Wired News:

Websites get looked at by two different kinds of visitors: the human ones who peer around, look at the graphics, think about the links and click slowly; and the spiders, those automated scanners that come in from search engines like Google, or, more ominously, from malicious attackers, competing businesses and spammers looking for e-mail addresses.

Fortunately, it has always been pretty easy to tell the difference between the two in server logs, and block unwanted or anti-social crawlers. But research presented at the Shmoo Con hacker conference here Friday may change that.

NSA's Web Site Rendered Inaccessible for Several Hours Friday

An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

The Web site for the National Security Agency, which has been under scrutiny over domestic wiretaps it conducted without warrants, was inaccessible for more than seven hours Friday.

A spokesman, Don Weber, declined to say whether the site suffered an attack by hackers or a technical glitch. Speaking shortly after the site went back online, he said only that employees had worked to restore access.

U.S. Agencies Probing Sales of Cellphone Data

Jeremy Pelofsky and Sinead Carew write for Reuters:

A U.S. Congressman said on Friday that federal agencies were looking into whether telephone companies were sufficiently protecting consumers' records amid concerns that Internet sites were selling cellphone call information.

Rep. Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) told him the agency was investigating whether phone companies were adequately protecting consumer records. He said in a statement "the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission were coordinating efforts to combat this rising fraud."

Tension Grows Between Labels and Digital Radio

John Borland writes on C|Net News:

The entry of satellite and digital radio into the technological mainstream is increasing tension with the record industry, which wants new rules governing how consumers can make digital copies of songs from the airwaves.

At issue are new devices that can record and save high-quality digital copies of tunes as they're being broadcast by these new networks. Recording executives are worried that consumers might increasingly opt to make such copies instead of purchasing the music on a commercial CD or from a download store like Apple Computer's iTunes.

The ToiletPod

Image source: TheTechNews.net

Texas Transit System Smart-Card Deal Awarded to ACS

William Welsh writes on GCN.com:

The fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States will deploy a smart-card transit system to be installed by Affiliated Computer Systems Inc.

ACS of Dallas has won a $14 million contract from the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas, to implement a contactless ticketing system for the area’s bus and light-rail transportation network.

Former Enron CEO Ken Lay Takes Case to the Internet

That headline should probably read "Former Enron CEO Ken Lay (soon to be Federal Inmate Number 3483478)..." or something to that effect.

A Reuters newswire article by Anna Driver, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

People sell everything from antique china to chihuahuas on the Internet, but former Enron Corp. chief executive Kenneth Lay's legal defense team wants Web surfers to buy his credibility.

Like media-savvy Martha Stewart and HealthSouth Corp.'s Richard Scrushy before him, Lay has set up a Web site designed to bolster his image as his trial is set to begin in Houston on conspiracy and fraud charges.

Attorney General to Testify on Domestic Spying

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

An AP newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has agreed to testify at a Senate hearing on the Bush administration’s domestic spying program, a Justice Department official said Friday.

Gonzales will discuss the legal authority for the National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping on telephone conversations between suspected terrorists and people in the United States, the official said.

The attorney general will not talk about operational aspects of the program at the hearing, which is expected to take place early next month, the official said.

Toon: Lying Western Dogs!

Click for larger image.

Qwest Surrenders After Broadbanders Revolt Over Spam AUP

Via eMail Battles.

A few days ago, broadband users went ballistic when they discovered language in Qwest's Acceptable Use Policy and High-Speed Internet Subscriber Agreement that appeared to:

bar usage of servers, even though the accounts had been clearly set up for use by servers, and;

charge account holders "U.S. dollars ($5.00) for each piece of Spam transmitted from or otherwise connected with your account."

To many, Qwest's lawyers had cast a net wide enough to put virtually any customer, commercial or residential, in a precarious position should any disputes should arise. Indeed, the "otherwise connected with your account" language left users incredulous. After all, isn't spam you receive "otherwise connected to your account?"

While Qwest defenders cried that "other kids do it, too," Email Battles pointed to a couple of fierce Qwest competitors, AT&T and Mediacom, who clearly do not serve up such odiferous porridge.

NZ Telecom Pays $12M to Telstra Over Pricing Dispute

A UPI newsbrief, via PhysOrg.com, reports that:

New Zealand Telecom said Friday it will pay about $12 million to settle a pricing dispute with Australian rival Telstra.

Last month Telecom was ordered to provide Telstra with access to its broadband services in order to increase competition in New Zealand. The latest agreement will give Telstra further discounts to use its networks as well.

Dilbert: The Sweet Nectar of Freedom

Click for larger image.

Steve Gibson: MS WMF is a Backdoor, Not a Coding Mistake

Via Groklaw.

Those of you using Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP will want to follow this story: Steve Gibson has examined WMF and he now believes it was deliberately coded. It looks to him that Microsoft put a backdoor into Windows, which can be triggered even if Active X is turned off and security is at high. It could be a renegade coder, he says, but it's not, in his view, bad design or a mistake.

I can't evaluate what he says, but if it's true it is so serious to your privacy and security, I would feel irresponsible not to point you to his podcast, so you can evaluate for yourself. So the podcast is here. Also, there are a number of Sony lawsuits going on, and some are considering settling. They also might like to know about this issue.

He is still testing, so this is a preliminary finding. It's possible that in a week he'll have more answers or a different explanation. Microsoft has yet to speak. Gibson is not an Open Source advocate, but he says he's gravitating toward it now.

More Freakish Friday the 13th News: Vampire Candidate 'Won't Hide Evil Side'

Tech Angle: None. Just having some fun with the day.

An AP newswire article, via Fox News, reoprts that:

One gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota is giving a whole new meaning to the "dark side" of politics. A man who calls himself a satanic priest plans to run for governor on a 13-point platform that includes the public impaling of terrorists at the state Capitol building.

Jonathon Sharkey, also known as "The Impaler", plans to launch his gubernatorial campaign on — when else? — Friday the 13th. He'll make the announcement in Princeton.

"I'm going to be totally open and honest," said the 41-year-old leader of the "Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party."

"Unlike other candidates, I'm not going to hide my evil side," he said.

Digital DJs 'Unaware of Copy Law'

Via The BBC.

Many DJs are still unwittingly breaking the law by playing unlicensed digital copies of tracks months after a new permit scheme began, the BBC has found.

The £200 annual licences were introduced by royalty collection organisation PPL in September.

DJs who copy tracks onto computers or MP3 players without one are breaking copyright law, the agency says.

But Radio 1 DJ Fergie told Newsbeat he did not know about the licences and doubted many other DJs did either.

Heh heh.

Friday the 13th: What's the Worst That Could Happen?

Greenpeace shocker. 'Nuff said.

Lester Haines provides a pointer over on The Register:

It's Friday the 13th - day of ill omen and inauspicious portent. It's also a really bad day to take your kids walking on a beach next to one of the UK's nuclear power stations. Click here to find out why.

Wow. Talk about scare tactics.

UK: CCTV Peeping Toms Jailed

Lester Haines writes in The Register:

Two members of a trio of municipal "Peeping Toms" from Merseyside have been jailed for training a street safety CCTV camera on a woman's flat in Liverpool's Bootle district in November 2004. Over several hours, the BBC reports, she was filmed from the Sefton CCTV centre - which controls 70 such cameras - "cuddling her boyfriend before undressing, using the toilet, having a bath and watching television dressed only in a towel".

Mark Summerton, 37, of Kirkdale, Liverpool, admitted voyeurism and attempted voyeurism at Liverpool Crown Court. He was sentenced to four months' prison and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register. Kevin Judge, 42, from Waterloo, admitted misconduct in public office and received a two-month jail sentence, having already been cleared last month of voyeurism.

The third man - team leader Vincent Broderick, 52, of Bootle, Merseyside - "admitted misconduct in public office on the grounds that he did not see the woman when she was naked, but knew the cameras were being misused and failed to report it". He was sentenced to 200 hours' community service.

European Political Blogs Lagging Behind U.S.

A UPI newswire article, via PhysOrg.com, reports that:

Blogging in America has been transformed into a political watchdog post shaking up today's political and journalistic worlds; however, the same effect hasn't made a significant stir in European affairs.

A panel of American and British media professionals discussed reasons behind the blogosphere phenomenon in the U.S. vs. its small influence in Europe Wednesday at the Hudson Institute in Washington.

Web Site of Agency Is Called Insecure

John Markoff writes in The New York Times:

The General Services Administration has shut a Web site for government contractors after a computer industry consultant reported that he was able to view and modify corporate and financial information submitted by vendors.

The security flaw, which could have permitted contractor fraud, was reported to the agency's inspector general on Dec. 22, but almost three weeks passed before the system was taken offline Wednesday afternoon.

The General Services Administration is the federal agency responsible for procuring equipment and services, including computer security technology, making the lapse all the more striking.

Friday the Thirteenth

Everything you ever wanted to know about Friday the 13th but were afraid to ask. Enjoy.

Via scottbruno.com.

Where did the superstition of Friday the 13th come from?

It appears that the superstition stems from the events that took place on Friday, October 13, 1307. On that day, the Pope of the Roman Catholic church, along with the King of France, sentenced the "the Knights Templar" to death and ordered the torture and crucifixion of their leader.

Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. It is though that If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names to name a few).

In North America and Europe, a significant portion of the population behaves very strangely on Friday the 13th. They won't fly in airplanes, host a party, apply for a job, get married or even start a new project. Some people won't even come into work. In the United States, roughly 8 percent of the population is afraid of Friday the 13th, a condition known as paraskevidekatriaphobia. "Friday the 13th" as we know it has its roots in many traditions and cultures.

The superstition surrounding Friday the 13th is actually a combination of two separate fears -- the fear of the number 13, called triskaidekaphobia, and the fear of Fridays. The most familiar source of both these phobias is Christian theology. Thirteen is significant to Christians because it is the number of people who were present at the Last Supper (Jesus and his 12 apostles). Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th member of the party to arrive.

Much, much more here.

Kudos to the USPS : Team Effort in Detroit Spamming Arrest

Brian McWilliams writes over on the Spam Kings blog:

You hear a lot about antispam lawsuits led by U.S. government agencies like the FTC and FDA, or by big Internet providers such as AOL and Microsoft.

But the U.S. Postal Inspection Service gets credit for helping to send Michigan pill spammer Daniel Lin to prison. According to a story in yesterday's Detroit News, Lin will be in court next Tuesday to plead guilty under a deal that could send him away for over four years. (Three other men affiliated with Lin -- Chris Chung, Mark Sadek and James Lin -- are still under investigation.)

More here.

User Friendly: Illegally Annoying Silence

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

Microsoft Plans Launch of Search Ad System

An AP newswire article by Allison Linn, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Microsoft Corp. plans to launch its system for selling advertising alongside regular search results by June in the United States, giving the company its next piece of ammunition in the battle with rivals including Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.

Microsoft has been testing its ambitious new platform for selling all kinds of online advertising, called adCenter, since last spring. Right now, the company said about 25 percent of the sponsored links that accompany regular search results on its MSN Search site are from adCenter, but that will grow to 100 percent by the time the company's fiscal year ends in June.

Pentagon Grilled Over Database on War Critics

An AP newswire article, via MSNBC, report sthat:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday asked for answers on an obscure Pentagon agency that included reports on student anti-war protests and other peaceful civilian demonstrations in a database meant to detect terrorist activities.

“Under what circumstances can peaceful protests at universities or by anti-war groups be monitored?” Feinstein, D-Calif., wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

“What authorities, and under what regulations, do military counterintelligence units have to conduct investigations on U.S. persons?” she wrote.

Get Popular, Get Targeted: DDoS Attack Cited in Million Dollar Homepage Outage

Via Netcraft.

The company hosting the Million Dollar Homepage says an electronic attack was responsible for the extended outages earlier today. The distributed denial of service (DDoS) occurred as college student Alex Tew sold the final 1,000 pixels if his innovative ad service in an eBay auction for $38,100. The attack left the milliondollarhomepage.com site unreachable for large portions of the day, as seen in a performance chart for the site.

"The site received a major DDoS attack, and DDoS protection/prevention was not included in the customer's plan," Russell Weiss of InfoRelay Online Systems, Inc. wrote in an e-mail to Netcraft. "That said, we voluntarily took a number of steps to alleviate this attack while working within the appropriate budget." InfoRelay is the owner and operator of Sitelutions, which hosts the Million Dollar Homepage.

The Real Mark of The Beast: New Zealand's Rakon Develops World's Smallest GPS Receiver

Image source: Engadet

Wow -- I'm not sure whether I'm just utterly impressed, or completely shook-up, wicked-scared.

And people think RFID is the Mark of The Beast... this would change everything. *shudder*

Marc Perton writes over on Engadget:

So you think today's handheld, SDIO and cellphone-based GPS units are small? Get ready for a new generation of even smaller GPS devices, ranging from wristwatches to slim cellphones to -- and we just know this is coming -- implants.

That's the promise held forth by what is being billed as the world's smallest GPS receiver, which was developed by New Zealand-based Rakon, a company affiliated with GPS-make Navman. According to Rakon, the chip is about the size of a baby's fingernail, and should be available in a range of devices within the next two years.

In Northern California, A Fault Line for 'Intelligent Design'

Pastafarians, Unite!

Louis Sahagun and Eric Bailey write in The LA Times:

The TV news crews and their satellite trucks began prowling the rugged hills not long after word spread of a lawsuit filed Tuesday by 11 parents against El Tejon Unified School District, the first legal challenge to the teaching of intelligent design in California.

At the district office, secretaries say at least three dozen interview requests have poured in for Supt. John Wight, who was at a conference and unavailable for comment.

The hullabaloo erupted after disgruntled parents joined with Americans United for Separation of Church and State to challenge a course at Frazier Mountain High School that they consider a minimally disguised endorsement of intelligent design.

Congress to Examine Tech Firms That Enable 'Great Firewall of China'

Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache write on C|Net News:

After hearing reports that American tech giants like Microsoft and Yahoo are abiding by Chinese law mandating Internet censorship, some irritated U.S. politicians are threatening to pass laws restricting such cooperation.

Rep. Christopher Smith, a New Jersey Republican, said Thursday that the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Human Rights, which he heads, will hold a hearing in early to mid- February. Smith has invited representatives from the U.S. State Department, Microsoft, Yahoo, Cisco Systems, Google, and the international watchdog group Reporters Without Borders to speak.

NASA's Comet Hunter on Final Approach for Sunday Landing

Artist's concept of Stardust approaching Earth.
Image source: NASA / JPL

Via NASA.

NASA's Stardust mission return capsule will land Sunday, Jan. 15, at approximately 2:12 a.m. Pacific time (3:12 a.m. Mountain time) on the Utah Test and Training Range. Stardust is completing a 2.88 billion mile round-trip odyssey to capture and return cometary and interstellar dust particles to Earth.

The spacecraft performs its last maneuver to put it on the correct path?to enter Earth's atmosphere on Friday, Jan. 13, at 8:53 p.m. Pacific time (9:53 p.m. Mountain time). The speed of the sample return capsule as it enters Earth's atmosphere at 46,440 kilometers per hour (28,860 miles per hour) will be the greatest of any human-made object on record. The previous record was set in May 1969 by the returning Apollo 10 command module.

Music Stops for Mac Windows Media Player

Ina Fried writes on C|Net News:

Microsoft has officially halted development of its Windows Media Player for the Mac and plans no future Apple Computer versions of its music-playing software, CNET News.com has learned.

"We have no plans to provide future updates or product support for Windows Media Player for Mac," Adam Anderson, Microsoft public relations manager, said in an interview Thursday.

UnReal ID: Frustration Over Driver's License Law

This seems like like a good time to mention, once again, UnRealID.com.

An AP newswire article, via CBS News, reports that:

An anti-terrorism law creating a national standard for all driver's licenses by 2008 isn't upsetting just civil libertarians and immigration rights activists.

State motor vehicle officials nationwide who will have to carry out the Real ID Act say its authors grossly underestimated its logistical, technological and financial demands.

SEC Opens Formal Investigation of IBM

An AP newswire article by Brian Bergstein, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Federal investigators have racheted up their probe of how International Business Machines Corp. advised Wall Street about stock option expenses in the first quarter of 2005, the technology giant disclosed Thursday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission opened an informal investigation of the matter last June, but Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM said the agency had informed the company Wednesday that the probe is now formal.

That means the SEC can issue subpoenas for documents rather than just requesting them. The step often occurs in the course of an agency investigation.

Wal-Mart Wins Back Chinese Domain Names

Via ChinaTechNews.com.

A Beijing court has ordered Nanjing Zhongtie Technology Development Company to return to the global retailing giant four Chinese domain names Zhongtie had earlier registered. The purchased domain names were special Chinese character representations of many of Wal-Marts trademarked brands.

According to a representative from Wal-Mart Beijing, the four Chinese domain names related to Wal-Mart were registered by Nanjing Zhongtie in July 2003.

Wal-Mart complained about Nanjing Zhongtie's behavior at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center in August 2004 when it initially identified Nanjing Zhongtie. Since then the two sides had raised a series of lawsuits against each other regarding the domain names.

The court believed that because Nanjing Zhongtie's behavior had constituted improper competition, it ruled in Wal-Mart's favor.

Beijing To Lift Operation Limits On Internet Cafes

Via ChinaTechNews.com.

Sun Anmin, vice major of the Beijing Municipal Government, spoke on a local radio program this week and said that Beijing would loosen the limits on Internet cafe' operation times and allow them to open after midnight.

Sun, who suggested that time limits should only be lifted from those cafes who have clean business records, said that this is a new measure approved by the State Council and will be implemented as a pilot project in Beijing.

Though the district cultural departments have not received official notice on the changes, Chinese netizens have been raving about the new policy in Chinese online chatrooms. As soon as the cultural departments receive word about the alterations, the new policy will be implemented.

H5N1 News: Genetic Change in Bird Flu Sample Detected

Uh oh.

An AP newswire article by Emma Ross, via ABC News, reports that:

Analysis of samples of the H5N1 bird flu virus from two of its victims in Turkey has detected a change in one gene in one of two samples tested, but it is too early to tell whether the mutation is important, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

The mutation, which allows the virus to bind to a human cell more easily than to a bird cell, is a shift in the direction of the virus being able to infect people more easily than it does now. However, that does not mean the mutation has taken root.

"We assume this could be one small step in the virus' attempt to adapt to humans," said WHO virologist Mike Perdue. "But it's only seen in one isolate and it's difficult to make sweeping conclusions. We just have to wait and see what the rest of the viruses (from Turkey) look like."

$1.1B Settlement Between Microsoft, California

Ed Oswald writes over on BetaNews:

A $1.1 billion settlement against Microsoft was allowed to proceed earlier this week after a California appeals court dismissed a challenge by a plaintiff in the case. Under the settlement, a third of the unclaimed vouchers would be returned to Microsoft, while the rest would be given to California schools.

The original ruling was handed down by a San Francisco Superior Court in July 2003, and found Microsoft guilty of overcharging California consumers for its Windows operating system. Vouchers ranging from $5 to $29 were to be distributed among those who made a claim.

U.S. Military Clamping Down on Security

Ellen Messmer writes on NetworkWorld:

Amid growing concern about hacker infiltrations into military computers, the top commander for the Department of Defense network operations has ordered a crackdown on security.

Lt. General Charles Croom, commander of the Joint Task Force on Global Network Operations and director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), last week said a sweep is underway of all Defense Department networks to uncover security holes amid a get-tough policy.

Sicko Using Kids Site to Download Spyware and Porn

Someone track these fuckers down and lock 'em up.

Thanks to Alex Eckelberry, who writes over on the Sunbelt Blog:

Until Jan 6, 2006, Corypaints(dot)com was a kids site. The whois on Jan 1, 2006 shows it was a pending delete. It was taken over by a spyware gang that deals with porn.

Let’s take a look at the front page:

If you type the same search in, but instead with “site:corypaints.com”, you get links to corypaint(dot)com directories with really sick links (not for the faint at heart):

Private familysex video download
Free dad & daughter f----
schoolgirl rapecom
Mother and teen son porn
Real rape scenes and stories

Clicking on these links results in an attempted WMF exploit to infect you with spyware.

The lengths these slimeballs will go to to infest a machine just boggle the mind.

FCC to Auction Internet Wireless Airwaves on Planes

A Reuters newswire article by Jeremy Pelofsky, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

U.S. regulators plan to sell airwaves starting May 10 to provide communications services like high-speed Internet to U.S. air travelers.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to auction airwaves now used by phones embedded in airplane seats. Those phones, operated by a Verizon Communications unit, are not used regularly because of the high cost.

U.S. Army Releases SatCom RFP

Frank Tiboni writes on FCW.com:

The Army issued a solicitation today for the five-year, $5 billion World-Wide Satellite Systems contract.

The contract will provide a vehicle for the military and government agencies to buy commercial terminals and services for satellite communications. The Army will award as many as six indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity deals in late spring 2006, with the intent for two to go to small businesses.

The six commercial satellite terminals offered on the contract are very small-aperture terminals (VSATs) for combat service support, flyaway VSATs, deployable satellite Earth terminals, fixed-station terminals, military-certified terminals and prime mover/trailer-mounted terminals. They might be required to operate with military or commercial satellites in the C-, Ku-, X- and Ka-bands.

Proposals are due March 13 at 10 a.m.

Find NPR Coverage Using Google Maps

Very cool!

Via Boing Boing.

NPR has a nifty service that lets you enter a zip code to see coverage area and signal strength of NPR stations.

IRS Tracked U.S. Taxpayers’ Political Affiliation

Via TheNewsTribune.com. (Tacoma, Washington)

As it hunted down tax scofflaws, the Internal Revenue Service collected information on the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of an appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the IRS, said the practice was an “outrageous violation of the public trust” that could undermine the agency’s credibility.

IRS officials acknowledged that party affiliation information was routinely collected by a vendor for several months. They told the vendor last month to screen the information out.

Court Dismisses Yahoo! Free Speech Suit

An AP newswire article by David Kravets, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

A federal appeals court on Thursday skirted answering whether Yahoo Inc. was liable to pay a fine of about $15 million to a Paris court for displaying Nazi memorabilia for sale in violation of French law.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a federal lawsuit brought by Yahoo in California challenging the fine levied five years ago for allowing French users to buy and sell the memorabilia banned in France.

Yahoo asked the court to rule that the judgment could not be collected because it violated the company's free speech rights in the United States.

F-Secure: The 'Symantec Rootkit'

Image source: F-Secure

Mikko writes over on the F-Secure "News from the Lab" Blog:

There has been quite a bit of media coverage on the "Symantec rootkit".

We were the ones that discovered this issue and informed Symantec about it last year - in fact this is nicely attributed in the Symantec advisory.

But we want to be clear on this: what Symantec was doing here was not nearly as bad as what Sony was doing with their rootkit.

Norton Systemworks has a feature called "Protected Recycle Bin". This feature is intended to enable the user to recover deleted files that would otherwise be unrecoverable. These files are stored in a folder typically called C:\Recycler\Nprotect - and this folder is hidden with rootkit-like techniques. There's nothing inherently wrong in this.

More here.

Sprint Employee Refuses to Divulge Kidnapped Baby's GPS Info

In a bizarre story, Ryan Block writes over on Engadget:

In what seems to be more a case of an uninformed CSR blindly abiding by his/her training manual than an institutional hatred of babies by Sprint, sheriff's deputies in Eastvale, CA were unable to coax a Sprint employee to divulge the GPS coordinates of a cellphone that was traveling in an stolen SUV containing a 10-month-old baby boy.

After strapping little Wade into his car seat, Jason Cochran went back inside the house to fetch his 3-year-old, and returned to find the SUV gone. When they called 911 and informed them that their Sprint phone with GPS was in the car, Jason and his wife Stephanie assumed that sheriffs would easily be able to track down Wade with help from Sprint. The Sprint employee who spoke with the officers, however, told them that they would need to fill out some forms, pay a $25 subpoena fee, etc., etc. in what was obviously a case in which speed was of the essence.

More here.

Toon: Alas, Poor Yorick...

3 Out of 4 Adults Registered for Do-Not-Call Registry

Ed Oswald writes over on BetaNews:

Three out of every four adults are now registered on the Federal Trade Commission's Do-Not-Call list, with a large majority saying they have seen a noticeable decrease in telemarketing calls. From January 2004 to the present, the number of adults registered climbed from 57 to 76 percent, a Harris Poll indicated.

18 percent of these registrants say they have received no calls since registration, with a majority, 61 percent, saying they receive far fewer calls. Only 7 percent say they either receive the same or more telemarketing calls since adding their names to the list.

Japanese Software Bugs Bite Back

Christian Caryl writes in Newsweek:

For 2006, the Tokyo stock exchange has decided to supplement its computer systems with an exotic new backup technology: people.

In December an employee at the Japanese investment firm Mizuho entered a mistaken sell order into the TSE's computerized trading system, which didn't allow the trade to be canceled once the mistake was noticed. The result: a transaction that ended up costing the company about $346 million. Earlier, on Nov. 1, another computer glitch had shut down the entire bourse for four hours.

Hence the announcement, just before Christmas, that a group of select officials who monitor trading at the exchange would henceforth be allowed to suspend transactions that look like mistakes—something that wasn't permitted under earlier rules.

UK: Computer Problems Driving People to Drink (and Smoke)

A UPI newsbrief, via PhysOrg.com, reports that:

A British survey says stress over work and computer-related problems is driving people to cigarettes and alcohol.

The poll by the group Developing Patient Partnerships showed more than a third of men and a quarter of women have a drink to cope with stress, the BBC reported.

Cisco Aironet Wireless Access Point Memory Exhaustion Vulnerability

Via Cisco.

A vulnerability exists in Cisco Aironet Wireless Access Points (AP) running IOS which may allow a malicious user to send a crafted attack via IP address Resolution Protocol (ARP) to the Access point which will cause the device to stop passing traffic and/or drop user connections.

Repeated exploitation of this vulnerability will create a sustained DoS (denial of service).

Cisco has made free software available to address this vulnerability for affected customers. There are workarounds available to mitigate the effects of the vulnerability.

Nikon to Stop Making Most Cameras That Use Film

Martin Fackler writes in The New York Times:

The Nikon Corporation, the Japanese camera maker, said Thursday that it would stop making most of its film cameras and lenses in order to focus on digital cameras.

The company, based in Tokyo, is the latest to join an industrywide shift toward digital photography, which has exploded in popularity. Rivals like Kodak and Canon have already shifted most of their camera production into digital products.

Dilbert: Free-Range Newbies

Click for larger image.

Can ISPs Recover Data Retention Costs in the UK?

Via OUT-LAW.com.

ISPs today welcomed a commitment from Home Secretary, Charles Clarke MP, to work with the internet industry to implement the Data Retention Directive into UK law, but expressed concern as to how industry costs would be reimbursed.

The Directive will force ISPs and telcos to retain phone and internet records for up to two years for use in investigation of criminal and terrorist offences.

Nortel Centrex IP Client Manager Multiple Vulnerabilities

Via Secunia.

Nortel Networks has acknowledged multiple vulnerabilities in Centrex IP Client Manager, which can be exploited by malicious, local users to gain escalated privileges and by malicious people to view potentially sensitive information, to trick users into downloading and executing arbitrary programs, and to compromise a user's system.

Space Tornado! Cosmic Front Packs a Punch

The Herbig-Haro object 49/50 looks like a tornado in space.
Image source: NASA / Spitzer / CfA

Ker Than writes on Space.com:

High-energy particles spewing out of a young star in a nearby stellar nursery are plowing through interstellar clouds and creating a giant spiral structure in space that looks like a glowing, rainbow-colored tornado, scientists said today.

The star spewing the particle jet lies 480 light-years away in a star-forming region known as Chamaeleon I.

In a photograph taken with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, that star is actually not visible because it is located off the upper edge of the image.

The luminous tornado-shaped structure is known as a Herbig-Haro object and estimated to be about 0.3 light years, or nearly 2 trillion miles, long and shows up in the infrared.

Firefox Restricted by Incompatible Websites

Nothing really new here, but at least this frustrating issue is getting more press.

Matthew Broersma writes on TechWorld:

Firefox may have ended 2005 with nearly 10 percent of total browser market share, but new users are in for a nasty shock, according to recent research, which claims one in 10 websites don't allow full access to Firefox users.

The research, from UK site testing firm SciVisum, was based on tests of 100 leading UK consumer websites. The firm found three percent turned away users of browsers other than Microsoft Internet Explorer, while another seven percent used code that could only be rendered in Explorer.

Dell Alleges Firm Falsely Invoiced Its Customers

Via The Inquirer.

A FILING made in a Northern California district court by Dell, alleges a firm misappropriated the names and addresses of some of its customers and sent them invoices for shipping products when it didn't ship them at all.

Dell is suing American Motor Lines Inc and a number of other unknown companies and individuals. It said in its filing that it sent Dell customers invoices for shipping products on its behalf. But Dell never authorised such shipments.

It said Dell has no connection or affiliation with the defendants or their shipping services and they didn't send products or render services described in the invoices.

No XP on Intel Macs, But Vista is Good to Go

Image source: Engadget

Marc Perton writes over on Engadget:

If you've been counting on being able to run Windows on those new Intel-based Macs, Apple's not about to make it easy for you -- at least not if you're attached to Windows XP. According to Apple SVP Phil Schiller, the new Macs announced yesterday (those being the Intel iMac and MacBook Pro) may not be able to run current versions of Windows due to the fact that the computers will boot using the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), rather than a traditional BIOS (current Power PC Macs use Open Firmware). EFI was developed by Intel and allows a number of advanced features, including the ability to connect to the Internet from a command shell before the OS is loaded.

Since EFI was developed after the rollout of Windows XP, it's not supported by the current or earlier version of Windows (it is, however, supported by 64-bit versions, but the new Macs are 32-bit, so it's back to square one). However, all is not lost: Windows Vista will support EFI, and Apple has said it has no plans to directly block Windows from working on the new boxes. So, if you're a Vista beta tester and have ordered a new iMac or MacBookPro, get those install CDs out; the rest of you will have to wait for the official Vista release, or find a way to hack XP to boot using EFI (which we're sure is about to become a major priority of some of you at this very moment).

February Meeting on Internet Governance

Kieren McCarthy writes on The Register:

The first steps toward the new Internet Governance Forum, which will take a lead role in how the internet will be run now and in the future, have been taken.

A website for the IGF has popped up on the net, and the first official convening meeting has been scheduled for 16-17 February at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva. Invitations to interested parties were sent out yesterday.

The establishment of the IGF was decided on at the World Summit in November, where UN secretary general Kofi Annan was asked to "to convene a meeting of the new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue".

User Friendly: The Heat of the Game

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

Anonymity Won't Kill the Internet

Bruce Schneier writes in Wired News:

In a recent essay, Kevin Kelly warns of the dangers of anonymity. It's OK in small doses, he maintains, but too much of it is a problem: "(I)n every system that I have seen where anonymity becomes common, the system fails. The recent taint in the honor of Wikipedia stems from the extreme ease which anonymous declarations can be put into a very visible public record. Communities infected with anonymity will either collapse, or shift the anonymous to pseudo-anonymous, as in eBay, where you have a traceable identity behind an invented nickname."

Kelly has a point, but it comes out all wrong.

Vietnam to Privatize Two Largest Mobile Phone Companies

An AFP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Vietnam's two biggest mobile phone companies will be partly privatised soon, a move likely to attract all the telecom majors in the world.

Vinaphone and MobiFone, both 100 percent subsidiaries of state-owned giant Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corp (VNPT), will be open to private money.

German Cannibal Back on Trial for Eating Internet Volunteer

Image source: Yahoo! News / AFP / DDP

An AFP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

The retrial of a self-confessed cannibal began in Germany as prosecutors sought a murder conviction for the man who killed and ate an apparently willing victim he met on the Internet.

In a lurid case that shocked the country, Armin Meiwes is being retried after a federal judge threw out a January 2004 manslaughter conviction on the grounds it was too lenient, despite the victim's purported "death wish".

Cannibalism in itself is not outlawed in Germany but if it can be proven Meiwes killed to fulfill sexual desire or in order to commit another crime, in this case "disturbing the peace of the dead", he could face life in prison.

Students Use Web to Unmask Sex Offender

An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

He posed as a prospective student and tried to pass himself off as a member of a royal family from Europe — until some student journalists uncovered his past.

The 22-year-old man told students he was 17 and that he was "Caspian James Chrichton Stuart IV," the "Fifth Duke of Cleveland."

"He was pretty quiet. But he seemed to talk with a little bit of an accent," sophomore Frank Carlson told KARE-TV for a story that aired Wednesday night.

Blackberry to Get Google Talk and Google Local

Via Reuters.

Blackberry mobile email devices will be equipped for instant messaging, local search and maps from Google, Google and Blackberry producer Research In Motion said on Thursday.

Google Talk allows users to send and receive instant text messages with other Google Talk members. The service will be available for download onto a Blackberry device this spring.

Betfair.com Raises Odds Against Web Attacks

Daniel Thomas writes on vnunet.com:

The internet has created a profitable marketplace for bricks and mortar retailers and spurred many new ventures that would not exist in the physical world.

One such company is online gaming firm Betfair, which handled one billion bets in 2005 and claims to process twice as many credit and debit card transactions as any other European web site.

But with the growth of ecommerce has come an influx of criminals looking to get rich through exploiting the internet.

Who's on First: New Doubts Are Cast on Einstein's Cosmological Constant

Dennis Overbye writes in The New York Times:

Einstein was wrong.

Einstein was right.

He was wrong about being wrong.

An astronomer from Louisiana State University said yesterday that a new analysis of cosmic history cast doubts on Einstein's cosmological constant, the leading explanation for the mysterious force that appears to be pushing apart the universe.

Sure, We Believe Ya, Georgie...

(I'm allowed to at least one political jab a day -- it's my blog.)

Safety and Reliability Questions About DRM

Victor Yodaiken, President and CEO of FSMLabs, has an excellent summary of the DRM evils over on Groklaw:

DRM is a potentially dangerous and intrusive licensing technology that is being pushed into production before safety and reliability issues have been addressed. The widespread use of standard computer products to control all sorts of important systems is being ignored and DRM is being introduced as if there was no role for computers except as personal entertainment devices and as if computer users were purely consumers of prepackaged “content”. This approach seems sure to create more problems as time goes by.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies are supposed to protect digitized “content”, like movies and musical performances from being illicitly copied or used. DRM technology is sometimes described as security technology when it is really licensing technology –- something very different. In fact, DRM may decrease security and reliability.

More here.

U.S. Army Set to Cancel Lockheed Spy Plane Project

A Reuters newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

The Army is set to cancel a spy plane project worth up to $8 billion with Lockheed Martin Corp. due to budget issues and development problems, according to a story on the Wall Street Journal Web site Wednesday.

Citing unnamed industry and government sources, the story said the Army may announce that it would end the program as soon as Thursday.

FBI Warns of Mining Accident e-Mail Scam

Martyn Williams writes on InfoWorld:

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is warning Internet users to be on the look out for a fraudulent e-mail soliciting money for a survivor of a mine accident in the U.S. last week.

The e-mail purports to be written by a doctor at the hospital where the miner is being treated and describes the condition of the survivor and the financial assistance that is needed for a full recovery.

Evil Bert Model Rocket Drag Race

I don't when this happened, how, or why, nor do I care about any other details surrounding the event.

All I can say is: Cool.

Props to John Paczkowski over on GMSV for providing a pointer, tho.

Five G-cluster rockets all constructed out of vintage Muppets puppets purchased on eBay. The winner was the first off the pad, with extra points awarded for innovative design.

.CN Domain Name Registrations Break 1 Million

Via ChinaTechNews.com.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China's .cn domain name registration has reached 1.09 million, an increase of 150% compared with the same period last year.

CNNIC is responsible for domain name management and IP allocation operations in China.

This dramatic increase has also made .cn domain names the top domain name country extension in Asia, and sixth in the world.

China was ranked thirteenth in the world at the beginning of 2005.

MasterCard Kicks Off Data Security Push

Joris Evers writes on C|Net News:

MasterCard International launched an initiative on Wednesday to help credit card-accepting merchants tighten up their protection of sensitive consumer data.

The credit card association is working with merchants to provide them with information, tools and support to help safeguard consumer data, Chris Thom, MasterCard's chief risk officer, said in a statement. It is part of a broader effort by MasterCard to safeguard payment systems and to improve security in commerce.

'Naked News' Lifts Kimono on Japanese Plans

A Reuters newswire article, via C|Net News, reoprts that:

"Naked News," which features anchors and reporters who disrobe during newscasts, launched its risque take on current affairs in Japan on Tuesday.

Beneath a banner proclaiming "Naked News" as "The program with nothing to hide," Sunrise Corp. CEO Takuya Uchikawa described the service as "a unique concept for the Japanese market."

Sunrise, which specializes in sales of goods and services via the Internet, and Naked News owner eGalaxy Multimedia have set a target of 10,000 mobile subscribers in the first year.

People's Bank Tape Lost With Data on 90,000 Customers

Stephen Lawson writes on InfoWorld:

A computer tape from a Connecticut bank containing personal data on 90,000 customers was lost in transit recently, the bank reported Wednesday.

People's Bank, based in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is sending letters to the affected customers, it said in a press release. The tape contains information such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers and checking account numbers. It was bound for the TransUnion LLC credit reporting bureau, based in Woodlyn, Pennsylvania, via United Parcel Service of America Inc. (UPS), the release said.

UPS is investigating the incident along with all involved parties, said UPS spokeswoman Heather Robinson. She would not disclose when the package was lost.

Symantec Caught in Norton 'Rootkit' Flap

Ryan Naraine writes on eWeek:

Symantec Corp. has fessed up to using a rootkit-type feature in Norton SystemWorks that could provide the perfect hiding place for attackers to place malicious files on computers.

The anti-virus vendor acknowledged that it was deliberately hiding a directory from Windows APIs as a feature to stop customers from accidentally deleting files but, prompted by warnings from security experts, the company shipped a SystemWorks update to eliminate the risk.

Colin Farrell's Sex Tape Pops Up on Internet Despite Ban

Big surprise here.

An AFP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Hell-raising movie star Colin Farrell has forced the shutdown of a website after it offered viewers a peek at his home-made sex video in violation of a court order banning its release.

The Internet site that boasted the steamy fare on Tuesday was not accessible Wednesday and Farrell's publicist revealed that an Internet site carrying an "unauthorized tape" of Farrell had been shut down.

The website had reportedly made available footage from video featuring the 29-year-old Irish heartthrob in bed with his then girlfriend, former Playboy Playmate Nicole Narain, despite a judge's order in July banning its circulation.

Sunbelt: Anatomy of a Malicious Host File Hijack

Alex Eckelberry writes over on the Sunbelt Blog:

Just for kicks and giggles, Patrick Jordan took apart a host file hijack that resulted in an obscenely accurate spoof of a Bank of America site — and a large number of other financial institutions.

Here’s how the Bank of America site looks like before the hijack:

...and it looks the same after it was hijacked.

More here.

Democracy Isn't Always Free Online

An AP newswire article by Mark Johnson, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

You can watch meetings of the state utilities commission online — but you'll have to pay as if it were WrestleMania or Tyson vs. Holyfield.

Meetings of the state Public Service Commission have become pay-per-view events, with the Texas company that provides live and archived webcasts charging $200 a month — just as it does with other riveting sessions of agency meetings in Texas and California.

"It smacks of pay-per-view democracy," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "The governor should put the public back in the Public Service Commission."

Directed-Energy Weapons Almost Ready for Prime Time

A laser fires from space toward Earth in this artistic rendering.
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Directed Energy Directorate
is conducting research in a wide variety of laser weapons technologies.
Image source: MSNBC / AFRL

A Space.com article by Leonard David, via MSNBC, reports that:

There is a new breed of weaponry fast approaching — and at the speed of light, no less. They are labeled "directed-energy weapons," and they may well signal a revolution in military hardware — perhaps more so than the atomic bomb.

Directed-energy weapons take the form of lasers, high-powered microwaves and particle beams. Their adoption for ground, air, sea, and space warfare depends not only on using the electromagnetic spectrum, but also upon favorable political and budgetary wavelengths too.

Apple Applies for Trademark on 'Mobile Me'

Ina Fried writes on the C|Net Apple Blog:

Apple Computer has applied for a trademark on the term "Mobile Me," according to a recent filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

No word on how Apple might use the term, though it does now have a speedier laptop in its lineup. The company filed four separate applications last week, covering a wide range of potential uses.

New iTunes Release Prompts Privacy Concerns

Ed Oswald writes on BetaNews:

Web sites and Internet forums are abuzz with news that a new feature recently added in version 6.0.2 may be communicating information on the song you are listening to Apple, raising privacy concerns from some users.

A "Mini Store" pane has been added to the main iTunens window that provides more information on the song being played, as well as additional available tracks from the artist, and a list of other songs that users who own the track have bought.

Norway Building 'Doomsday Vault' to Warehouse Seeds

A developing story, true enough.

An AFP newswire article, via PhysOrg.com, report sthat:

Norway is to build a "doomsday vault" in a mountain close to the North Pole that will house a vast seed bank to ensure food supplies in the event of catastrophic climate change, nuclear war or rising sea levels, New Scientist says.

Built with Fort Knox-type security, the three-million-dollar vault will be designed to hold around two million seeds representing all known varieties of the world's crops.

They are the precious food plants that have emerged from 10,000 years of selection by farmers.

The facility "would essentially be built to last forever," according to a feasibility study.

XP Won't Run on Intel MacBook, iMac

Nate Mook writes over on BetaNews:

With the announcement of the first Intel based Macs yesterday, many users have rejoiced in being able to dual-boot both Mac OS X and Windows. Unfortunately, this is not the case; due to Apple's use of the extensible firmware interface (EFI) rather than BIOS, current Windows releases will not run on the systems.

On Tuesday at Macworld, Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller said the company would not specifically block the use of Windows on Mac hardware. Instead, limitations in Windows itself will prevent its use on the new MacBook Pro laptop and iMac.

Virgin Aussie Unit Bought Out by Optus

Via Red Herring.

Singapore Telecommunications’ Australian mobile unit, Optus, acquired a remaining 74.15 percent stake in Virgin Mobile Australia on Wednesday for AUD 30 million ($22.6 million).

The acquisition brings Optus’ stake in Virgin Mobile Australia (VMA) to 100 percent. Optus and the Virgin Group launched VMA as a 50-50 joint venture in 2000. Virgin Group later increased its shareholding to 74.15 percent during 2002.

South Africa Approves Vodafone Bid for Local Mobile Operator

An AFP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

South Africa's competition tribunal approved Vodafone's bid to buy a 15-percent stake in local mobile phone operator Vodacom in a multi-billion-dollar deal, paving the way for the second largest investment in the country since the end of apartheid in 1994.

British telecoms giant Vodafone has offered around 2.4 billion dollars (two billion euros) to buy out ordinary shares in Venfin, which owns 15 percent of Vodacom.

Cisco Security Advisory on CS-MARS

Via Cisco.

The Cisco Security Monitoring, Analysis and Response System (CS-MARS) software contains a default password for an undocumented administrative account. This password is set, without any user intervention, during installation of the software used by CS-MARS appliances, and is the same in all installations of the product. Users must be authenticated to the CS-MARS command line in order to utilize the default password to access the administrative account.

Software version 4.1.2 and earlier of CS-MARS are affected by this vulnerability. Customers running software version 4.1.3 or higher can mitigate the effects of this vulnerability by applying the workaround listed in this advisory. Cisco has made free software available to address this vulnerability for affected customers.

NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying

Russell Tice, a longtime insider at the NSA, alleges secret operations
were conducted in ways that he believes violated the law.
Image source: ABC News

Brian Ross writes on ABC News:

Russell Tice, a longtime insider at the National Security Agency, is now a whistleblower the agency would like to keep quiet.

For 20 years, Tice worked in the shadows as he helped the United States spy on other people's conversations around the world.

"I specialized in what's called special access programs," Tice said of his job. "We called them 'black world' programs and operations."

But now, Tice tells ABC News that some of those secret "black world" operations run by the NSA were operated in ways that he believes violated the law. He is prepared to tell Congress all he knows about the alleged wrongdoing in these programs run by the Defense Department and the NSA in the post-9/11 efforts to go after terrorists.

"The mentality was we need to get these guys, and we're going to do whatever it takes to get them," he said.

India's MNTL Telecom Seeks Chinese Stake

A UPI newsbrief, via PhysOrg.com, reports that:

India's state-owned telecom MTNL is reportedly about to acquire equity in a Chinese telecom as part of its overall expansion strategy.

The identity of the Chinese company had not been revealed; however, the Hindu Business Line reported that it was set to launch third-generation telecommunications service in a potential market covering four Chinese provinces.

Google Earth for Mac Released

Juan Carlos Perez writes on InfoWorld:

Google has released a Mac OS version of Google Earth, extending to Apple Computer users the flashy mapping application that has been wowing Windows PC users since its launch last year, the Mountain View, California, company said Tuesday.

Google Earth, available as a free download, taps a multiterabyte database of aerial and satellite images to let users "fly" around the globe using a video-game type user interface. Users can also save and share searches, and add notes.

H5N1 News: WHO Official Says Bird Flu Not Mutating

A UPI newsbrief, via PhysOrg.com, reports that:

A World Health Organization official says the bird flu virus in Turkey does not appear to be mutating.

Dr. Guenael Rodier said epidemiologic and virologic investigations so far have found "no evidence to suggest any difference in the disease pattern than what we have previously seen for A(H5N1)," the New York Times reported.

Optical Wireless and Broadband Over Power Lines

Via PhysOrg.com.

Penn State engineers have shown that a white-LED system for lighting and high data-rate indoor wireless communications, coupled with broadband over either medium- or low-voltage power line grids (BPL), can offer transmission capacities that exceed DSL or cable and are more secure than RF.

Dr. Mohsen Kavehrad, the W. L. Weiss professor of electrical engineering and director of the Center for Information and Communications Technology Research, and his team have shown that, in the system they designed, coupling white LEDs to BPL can deliver secure, wireless bit rates of a gigabit per second, a rate only exceeded by fiber.

Gizmodo: A Windows CE Gas Pump

Image source: Gizmodo.com

Via Gizmodo.

God forbid you be at the gas station using a Windows CE-based pump, but if you trust it, go for it. Company Dresser Wayne is manufacturing a gas pump dubbed the Ovation(R) iX dispenser. The idea is that the pump will be connected to the internet, and in states where you don’t have full-service, you will be able to pay and order coffee from the pump, check news, weather, stocks, and even run express diagnostics on your car to make sure you don’t need an oil change or anything similar.

You’ll even be able to print coupons out apparently for later use in your Quik-E-Mart. Just don’t come crying to us when CE gets a FATAL ERROR and makes your gas tank explode.

VeriSign to Acquire CallVision

Dawn Kawamoto writes on C|Net News:

Internet registry operator VeriSign on Wednesday announced plans to acquire CallVision, a developer of online analysis applications, in a deal valued at $30 million.

CallVision's technology will be folded into the VeriSign Wireless Commerce Suite, which is designed to help telecommunications and mobile carriers provide simplified online billing. The acquisition of Seattle-based CallVision, whose customers include T-Mobile, Bell Canada and TelstraClear, is expected to close in the first quarter.

London to Test Anti-Terror Tech for Commuters

Andy McCue writes on C|Net News:

Trials of airport-style body-scanning technology and high-tech closed-circuit TV systems are set to begin Thursday at London's Paddington railway station.

The effort is part of the government's attempts to reduce the risk of terrorist bomb attacks on the capital's transportation network.

New 419 Scam Involving Bogus Volkswagen Lottery

William Eazel writes on SC Magazine Online:

Security experts today warned internet users of a spam campaign that pretends the recipient has won a lottery sponsored by the Volkswagen motor company.

The messages claims that recipients have been chosen for a $1.7 million prize and a brand new VW car. The emails say the user has been randomly chosen from more than 250,000 email addresses around the world. It then urges recipients not to tell anyone else of their win, but to quickly contact a prize transfer agent for further instructions. A phone number and email address is given for people to contact.

Hackers Attack eBaumsWorld

Nick Farrell writes on The Inquirer:

EBAUMSWORLD, a site which offers cash for funny content, has been walloped by a series of hacks and attacks for the last 48 hours in a row about copyright over one of the videos it published.

According to an editorial published at the site, the attacks included a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, malicious attempts at gaining access to restricted parts of the site, spamming forums and chat rooms and hacking into admin restricted accounts.

There have also been numerous personal threats made against eBaum's World staff members and its offices were vandalized.

Boeing Satellite Pact Worth Up to $1B

An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Boeing Co. announced an agreement with Mobile Satellite Ventures on Wednesday to build three satellites and associated ground systems, which the aerospace company described as its largest satellite contract in nine years.

Financial terms were not formally disclosed, but Reston, Va.-based Mobile Satellite Ventures Chief Executive Alexander Good said on a conference call that the deal is worth between $500 million and $1 billion.

Boeing said it is the company's biggest satellite deal since an order for two large satellites in 1997.

World of Warcraft 'Event' Crashed 27 Servers

Theo Valich writes on The Inquirer:

IN WORLD OF WARCRAFT, Blizzard may have a massively popular online game with up to five million players, but it seems the sheer scale of the game brings problems the company is struggling to cope with.

WoW players will be familiar with the fiasco surrounding opening the gates of Ahn'Qiraj, a realm that was added in latest patch.

While servers filled with gamers that gathered on the place of event, some 27 crashed, leaving thousands of gamers stuck in their own realms.

Gapingvoid.com Fix

Via gapingvoid.com. Enjoy!

FTC Launches Web Site to Fight Cybercrime

A USA Today article by Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Responding to the rising cybercrime threat, the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday unveiled an online tool designed to help consumers avoid becoming victims of Internet scams.

At the website, www.onguardonline.gov, consumers can take interactive quizzes designed to enlighten them about ID theft, phishing, spam and online-shopping scams.

If the user selects a wrong answer, the program explains why that particular misconception about Internet security can lead to trouble.

Connexion by Boeing to Start New Pricing Scheme

An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Connexion by Boeing, a division of the aerospace company that offers in-flight Internet and entertainment services on several foreign airlines, says it will start charging people slightly less for online access — or slightly more, depending on how long they stay connected.

Beginning Jan. 31, Connexion will charge $26.95 for up to 24 hours of unlimited Internet access. It currently charges $29.95 for six hours or more.

One hour of Internet access will cost $9.95, compared to $14.95 Connexion now charges for three hours or less. Two hours will cost $14.95 under the new price structure. And three hours will cost $17.95.

European Tech Giants Craft Their Own Search Engine

An AP newswire article by Angela Charlton, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Quaero is billed as Europe's answer to Google, but it has a lot to live up to.

The awkward word — which means "to search" in Latin — is unlikely to flash across the continent's computer screens anytime soon.

So far Quaero is just a scattering of top tech minds in labs across France and Germany, working on what they hope will be the world's most advanced multimedia search engine.

Om Malik: Skype, The Bandwidth Hog?

Om Malik writes over on his Next Generation blog:

Paul Kedrosky just experienced the worst of Skype. His computer became like a super-super node and basically overwhelmed his 100 megabit per second connection to the Internet. It has been a deep dark secret in the Skype world that how super fast hosts in the West are being used as supernodes for the benefit of others who are geeky enough to prevent this from happening.

As more and more Skype-enabled phones go online, how bad of a problem this “pipe hijack” will become?

California School Sued Over Intelligent Design

An AP newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

A rural high school teaching a religion-based alternative to evolution was sued Tuesday by a group of parents who said the class should be stopped because it violates the U.S. Constitution.

Frazier Mountain High School in Lebec violated the separation of church and state while attempting to legitimize the theory of "intelligent design" by introducing it as a philosophy class taught by a minister's wife, according to the federal lawsuit filed by parents of 13 students.

Microsoft's File System Patent Upheld

Anne Broache writes on C|Net News:

Two patents covering one of Microsoft's main Windows file-storage systems are valid after all, federal patent examiners have decided.

The decision, announced Tuesday by the software giant, effectively ends a two-year saga over the patents and reverses two non-final rulings--the latest issued in October--in which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected Microsoft's claims.

Bahamas Resort Loses 50,000 Identities

Peter Laborge writes over on SecurityFocus:

Customers of the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas have reason to worry this week, as over 50,000 identities have been taken from the hotel's database. The information was revealed in a document submitted to the Bahamas Securities and Exchange Commission.

The information includes typical information such as names, addresses and credit card details, but also more damaging details such as social security numbers, drivers license numbers and bank account data. The hotel management is writing notices to affected customers to inform them of the issue, and offering a no-cost credit monitoring service for one year, according to a Yahoo news article. The hotel is also working with both local and U.S. law enforcement and investigations are underway to determine the source of the breach.

AOL Swings From 'Dying Relic' to 'Coveted Partner'

Jefferson Graham writes in USA Today:

At a recent industry conference in San Francisco, America Online CEO Jonathan Miller called his company the "largest swing voter" in a four-way battle to dominate the Internet: "It's a significant swing vote that could go many different ways, and people are aware of that."

Are they ever. AOL now is in play, with chief rivals Microsoft, Google and Yahoo all talking to parent Time Warner about a stake — for a price tag that reportedly starts at $10 billion. Google has discussed both a solo bid and one in partnership with cable giant Comcast.

Analysts: Disney Deal With Pixar Likely

An AP newswire article by Gary Gentile, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

The more time that passes without a new distribution deal between The Walt Disney Co. and Pixar Animation Studios, the greater the speculation, including a theory that Disney is angling to buy Pixar and install its chief executive, Steve Jobs, as Disney's chairman.

Analysts believe a new distribution deal is likely — and soon. But they dismiss the notion that Disney would buy Pixar. An outright purchase would be too expensive, analysts say, and would not be wise for either company in the long term.

Microsoft, Apple Sign 5-Year Software Deal

An AP newswire article by Allison Linn, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Apple Computer Inc. won't thwart users from loading Microsoft's Windows operating system onto its new Intel-based Macintosh computers — but don't expect Apple to start offering a Mac running Windows.

Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in an interview Tuesday that the company won't sell or support Windows itself, but also hasn't done anything to preclude people from loading Windows onto the machines themselves.

New Intel Macs Scream, Jobs Says

Leander Kahney writes in Wired News:

Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs took center stage at Macworld on Tuesday to introduce the first Macs based on Intel chips six months ahead of schedule: a speedy, flat-screen iMac and a slim, high-end notebook with a new name -- the MacBook.

Looking trim and fit in his trademark jeans and turtleneck, Jobs told the enthusiastic audience that the new machines are two to four times faster then the Macs they replace, which are based on PowerPC chips from IBM and Motorola.

"These things are screamers," he said.

Levi Strauss Debuts 'iPod-Ready' Jeans

Via Reuters.

Call it the 21st Century watch pocket.

Denim giant Levi Strauss said on Tuesday it had designed jeans compatible with the iPod music player, featuring a joystick in the watch pocket to operate the device.

The Levi's RedWire DLX Jeans for men and women, which will be available this fall, also have a built-in docking cradle for the iPod and retractable headphones. Pricing was not immediately available.

U.S. Warns World of Pluto Probe's Nuclear Payload

Kelly Young writes on NewScientist.com:

The US has officially notified the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency that NASA is preparing to launch New Horizons, its Pluto-bound mission carrying 10.9 kilograms of radioactive material.

The New Horizons probe is scheduled to begin its nine-year journey on 17 January. It is carrying plutonium dioxide to power its instruments during its frozen odyssey through the solar system.

Internet Users Will Hunt for Stardust@home

Maggie McKee writes on NewScientist.com:

With NASA's Stardust spacecraft due to drop its cosmic samples to Earth on 15 January, mission planners are trying to enlist thousands of internet users to help analyse its payload, in a project called Stardust@home.

Stardust was launched in 1999 with the principle aim of collecting dust from the trail of Comet Wild 2, which is thought to have remained nearly unchanged since its formation in the early solar system, about 4.5 billion years ago. But on its way to the comet, the spacecraft also captured interstellar dust by periodically exposing the "reverse" side of its sponge-like, aerogel collector to space.

Tech Companies Form Ethernet Alliance

Marguerite Reardon writes on C|Net News:

Technology companies including Sun Microsystems, 3Com, Broadcom and Samsung have formed a marketing group that will work to promote and educate people about emerging Ethernet technologies.

The main purpose of the group, called the Ethernet Alliance, is to serve as a resource to help explain new advances in Ethernet technology, said Blaine Kohl, vice president of marketing for the Ethernet Alliance and vice president of marketing at Tehuti Networks, a maker of 10-gigabit-per-second Ethernet equipment. The alliance will work closely with the standards body the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), which develops Ethernet standards, and the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory, which certifies Ethernet products.

Cisco, EDS Close to $15B Network Upgrade Deal With GM

Phil Hochmuth writes on NetworkWorld:

Cisco and EDS are close to landing a $15 billion network upgrade and outsourcing deal with General Motors, a financial analyst reported this week.

Merrill Lynch research analyst Tal Liani issued a report on the potential five-year contract, which would involve the installation and management of new Cisco IP data and voice network gear by integration giant EDS.

Cisco declined to comment on the report or any potential deal with GM.

Patch Tuesday: MS Issues Two Fixes

Ed Oswald writes on BetaNews:

Microsoft issued two more critical patches as part of its regular Patch Tuesday security update, including a fix for a vulnerability when viewing embedded Web fonts and a flaw in the decoding of TNEF messages. The company included its WMF fix with the monthly security updates, although a patch for the issue has been available since January 5.

The first patch fixes a problem in how Windows displays embedded Web fonts. The flaw could enable malformed fonts to be used as a way to execute code on a remote system. The vulnerability could be exploited through either a malicious Web site or specially crafted e-mail message, Microsoft said.

Juniper 'Remakes' Upper Management

Jim Duffy writes on NetworkWorld:

Juniper Networks has shuffled upper management and filled a six-month void in its top marketing position, part of what the company claims is a "structured succession plan."

Three high-ranking executives are leaving the company to pursue other opportunities, according to Juniper. They include Jim Dolce, executive vice president of Worldwide Field Operations, responsible for global sales and service; Carol Mills, executive vice president and general manager, Infrastructure Products Group (IPG); and Jef Graham, executive vice president, Application Products Group (APG).

MacWorld Expo Site Falters During Jobs Keynote

Via Netcraft.

The official web site for the MacWorld Expo was bogged down by heavy traffic today as Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at the Moscone Center for his annual keynote address. In a repeat of last year's keynote, the crush of surfers eager for details on the latest Apple products slowed macworldexpo.com to a crawl.

The site was knocked offline Monday night, apparently from traffic chasing the latest rumors about new product unveilings. On Jan. 3 the site (which ironically is powered by Windows Server 2003) was shifted to new hosting digs at Level 3, perhaps in anticipation of heavy traffic during the annual MacWorld show.

Mac enthusiast sites adapted their sites to manage the extra traffic, as the Mac News Network went to an all-text, ad-free page as it live-blogged Jobs' speech.

Qualys Vulnerability Research Put in Peril

John E. Dunn writes on TechWorld:

Security management vendor Qualys has denied that its innovative Laws of Vulnerability research has been jeopardised by the sudden departure of its key instigator, Gerhard Eschelbeck.

The company has confirmed that no individual had been appointed to directly replicate Eschelbeck’s work on the research, an analysis of real-world vulnerabilities taken from scans of Qualys’s substantial enterprise customer base. The findings for 2005 were announced last November at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.

Former company CTO and VP of engineering, Eschelbeck, announced before Christmas that he was leaving the company he'd worked at for five years to take up an identical position at anti-spyware vendor, Webroot. He is considered an authority on the topic of vulnerabilities and patching strategies.

Indian States Monitoring Cybercafe Users

An AP newswire article by S. Srinivasan, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

The southern Indian state of Kerala will join two other states in requiring cybercafes to record the names and addresses of their customers in an effort to combat online fraud, virus attacks and terrorism, an official said Tuesday.

The new rules would require cybercafes to verify the identities of Internet surfers and record their home addresses and visiting times, said M. Vijayanunni, the top administrator of Kerala's government.

EU Clears Spain's Telefonica to Buy O2

An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

European regulators on Tuesday cleared a $31.5 billion deal by Telefonica SA to buy British wireless operator O2 PLC after the Spanish acquirer agreed to exit an international roaming alliance.

The European Commission said it was concerned the deal would damage competition in the market for international roaming services, which allow travelers use their cell phones on wireless networks in other countries.

Man Sues Over Chat Room Humiliation

Via OUT-LAW.com.

An Ohio man who claims that he was humiliated by two other participants in an AOL chat room has sued the two men for causing emotional distress and the ISP for failing to stop the alleged abuse, according to a report from Law.com.

The case, which is due for a hearing in an Ohio court today, is said to be the first of its kind.

McAfee President Jumps to Websense

Dawn Kawamoto writes on C|Net News:

McAfee President Gene Hodges has resigned to take the chief executive post at rival security company Websense, the companies announced separately Tuesday.

Hodges, whose resignation is effective immediately, marks the latest case of a high-level executive jumping to a competitor. Websense provides Web-filtering security software, while McAfee, predominately known as an antivirus company, has been rapidly expanding its footprint into new areas of the security market.

IETF Approves Controversial Cisco Wi-Fi Standard

Peter Judge writes on TechWorld:

A Cisco protocol has been chosen as the basis for a standard that will control Wi-Fi access points in enterprise networks - but analysts say the final standards may be ignored by users.

Cisco's LWAPP protocol has been confirmed as the basis for an eventual standard that could allow users to build enterprise wireless LANs from several vendors' kit. At present, the "thin" access points used in centralised wireless LANs can usually be controlled by central switches from only one vendor.

However, "open" Wi-Fi networks may not make such a big difference. Standard products won't be available for a year, and other vendors have emphasised the difficulty of upgrading to them. In any case, users won't care much, say analysts.

Chinese Ban on Wikipedia Prevents Research, Users Say

Geoffrey York writes in The Globe and Mail:

Beijing — Chinese students and intellectuals are expressing outrage at Beijing's decision to prohibit access to Wikipedia, the fast-growing on-line encyclopedia that has become a basic resource for many in China.

Wikipedia, which offers more than 2.2 million articles in 100 languages, has emerged as an important source of scholarly knowledge in China and many other countries. But its stubborn neutrality and independence on political issues such as Tibet and Taiwan has repeatedly drawn the wrath of the Communist authorities.

AOL Acquires Truveo for Video Search

An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

America Online Inc. has acquired the video search company Truveo Inc. as it seeks to make online video offerings easier to find.

The acquisition announced Tuesday underscores the importance of video in drawing visitors to AOL's ad-supported sites, an important component in AOL's year-old strategy of emphasizing free content over its declining access subscription business.

Terms were not disclosed.

H5N1 News: Turkey Reports Another Case of Human Bird Flu

Via CNN.

Turkey has confirmed a new case of human bird flu in yet another part of the country, this time in a central province, as authorities test dozens of people with flu-like symptoms.

It is not clear if the latest case in the east-central city of Sivas is the deadly H5N1 strain that has been sweeping the country. Seven other patients at Sivas Hospital are being treated for flu-like symptoms.

User Friendly: CD DRM Redux

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

Live, from iTunes, it's 'Saturday Night'

Via CNN/Money.

Apple Computer is set to announce Tuesday that it will offer a limited number of "Saturday Night Live" skits on its iTunes Music Store for viewing on video iPods or personal computers, according to a published report.

The New York Times said the company will sell the archived skits of the NBC Universal show for $1.99 each.

Gapingvoid.com fix...

Via gapingvoid.com. Enjoy!

Microsoft Research India to Work on Cryptography

John Ribeiro writes on InfoWorld:

Microsoft Research announced Tuesday that it is setting up a group to do research in cryptography at its lab in Bangalore, India.

Microsoft decided to set up a team in India to work on cryptography, because of the high level of complex mathematical skills available in the country, that are critical for research in cryptography, said Padmanabhan Anandan, managing director of Microsoft Research in India.

IBM Expert Warns of Short Life-Span for Burned CDs

John Blau writes on InfoWorld:

Opinions vary on how to preserve data on digital storage media, such as optical CDs and DVDs. Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland, has his own view: If you want to avoid having to burn new CDs every few years, use magnetic tapes to store all your pictures, videos and songs for a lifetime.

"Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD," Gerecke said in an interview this week. "There are a few things you can do to extend the life of a burned CD, like keeping the disc in a cool, dark space, but not a whole lot more."

Wiring The Turin Olympics

Dan Frommer writes on Forbes.com:

One of the biggest challenges was the deployment," said Yan Noblot, information security manager for Atos Origin, worldwide information technology partner for the Turin Olympics.

"For the winter games, we have to deploy IT systems in the mountains. It's freezing, and computers don't really like cold or humidity. But you're basically surrounded by snow," Noblot said.

A DVD Combo? Don't Hold Your Breath

And the real losers are... the consumers.

Michael Kanellos writes on C|Net News:

For consumers, a device that could play both HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs would take a lot of risk out of adopting the new video players--but one may not arrive for a while.

Legal agreements, intellectual property issues and technological pride will likely keep the two camps backing incompatible next-generation technologies from coming together in the near future, executives and analysts said.

Dilbert: Dogbert's Retirement Planning Seminar

Click for larger image.

UK: Internet Sales Boost for Domino's

Via The BBC.

A strong rise in the number of online pizza orders over Christmas is set to result in better-than-expected profits at the UK arm of Domino's Pizza.

Britain's largest home-delivery pizza chain said like-for-like sales for the six weeks to 1 January rose 3.6%.

The increase was helped by a 57.6% rise in sales via the internet and through interactive television.

Federal Judges Belatedly Briefed on Domestic Spying

An AP newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

The federal judges who were bypassed when the Bush administration ordered warrantless wiretaps in the United States received a secret briefing Monday on details of the surveillance.

Separately, a former FBI director and other lawyers questioned whether the surveillance is legal.

The classified briefing at the Justice Department had been requested by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, presiding judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court. Established by Congress in the late 1970s, the court oversees the government’s handling of espionage and terrorism investigations.

U.S. Opening Some Private Mail in Terror Fight

A Reuters newswire article, via CNN, reports that:

U.S. officials are opening personal mail that arrives from abroad when they deem it necessary to protect the country from terrorism, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman said Monday.

News of the little-known practice follows revelations that the government approved eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without judicial oversight after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which sparked concern from civil liberties advocates and some lawmakers, who called for congressional hearings.

Patriot Act Defender Touts 'Safeguards'

Safeguards. Right. We've seen those.

Anne Broache writes on C|Net News:

The Patriot Act renewal's primary sponsor has kicked off a campaign intended to shine light on "civil liberties safeguards" he claims are contained in the latest draft.

The defense comes as Congress prepares to resume debate on a contentious "conference report." The measure has received backing from many Republicans but harsh criticism from a mostly Democratic contingent, particularly after news that President Bush had sanctioned wiretapping of American citizens without court approval.

China Unicom Begins Mobile Phone GPS Service In 114 Cities

Via ChinaTechNews.com.

China Unicom says that it has already opened CDMA mobile phone GPS service in 114 cities across China in the past week.

Zhai Yibin, deputy general manager of China Unicom, says that by the end of the first quarter of this year, China Unicom will have its CDMA mobile phone navigation service cover two thirds of the cities in China.

The company will gradually include all the 300 major cities in China into its service range over the next 12 months.

Verizon's Cellular Music Service Hampers MP3 Ability

An AP newswire article by Bruce Meyerson, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

The first edition of a new music service from Verizon Wireless hampers a cell phone's ability to play MP3 songs acquired elsewhere, a handicap the company says is purely temporary and unrelated to larger battles over digital copyright restrictions.

The new V-Cast Music store does, however, weigh in definitively on one side of the music download industry by employing the newest version of the Windows Media Player from Microsoft Corp., which doesn't work with Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh operating system or iTunes software.

Fiber Cut Affects Sprint Service

An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Sprint Nextel Corp.'s wireless, long-distance and Internet customers along the West Coast were without service Monday afternoon after a fiber-optic cable was cut west of Phoenix.

The problem was compounded by network repairs near Reno, Nev., that had forced the company to route calls from that region through the Phoenix lines, spokesman John Taylor said.

The cut, between Phoenix and Palm Springs, Calif., happened at about 3:30 p.m. EST, Taylor said. He said he couldn't yet estimate how many customers were affected, or how long it will take to get service re-established.

Two New WMF Vulnerabilities Found

Robert McMillan writes in InfoWorld:

Just days after Microsoft Corp. patched a critical vulnerability in the way the Windows operating system renders certain types of graphics files, a hacker has published details of two new flaws that affect the same part of the operating system.

The new vulnerabilities were posted to the Bugtraq security mailing list on Monday by a hacker going by the name of "cocoruder."

All three flaws concern the way Windows renders images in the Windows Metafile (WMF) format used by some CAD (computer-aided design) applications, but these latest flaws are far less serious than the vulnerability that Microsoft patched last week, according to security experts.

Customers Say Amazon.com Partner Never Sent Items

An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

More than a thousand customers didn't receive items they ordered from a company that does business through Amazon.com Inc., forcing the massive online retailer to offer refunds.

Amazon.com spokeswoman Patty Smith said Monday that the outside seller, which is listed as "mygreatchoice," received outstanding customer ratings after it first began selling on Amazon.com in July. But Amazon.com noticed a big decline in customer satisfaction starting in late November.

Bubble 2.0: Dow Jones Industrials Close Above 11,000

An AP newswire article by Christopher Wang, via SFGate.com, reports that:

The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 11,000 Monday for the first time since before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, lifted by a five-day rally that has sent stocks soaring so far in 2006.

More here.

FCC's Martin Concerned Over Broadband Plan?

I'm certainly not convinced....

Roy Mark writes on internetnews.com:

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin is worried about mounting rumors of a proposed "two-tiered" broadband delivery system by the Baby Bells.

Under the plan being quietly pushed in Congress by the Bells, broadband providers would be able to charge Internet companies, such as Yahoo, Google and Amazon, an extra fee to deliver high-bandwidth content and services to consumers.

Martin told a Consumer Electronics Show crowd in Las Vegas on Friday that broadband providers have the right to sell differentiated services, but consumers should have the ability to access any legal content on the Internet.

H5N1 News: Anger, Fears Grow in Turkey

An AFP newswire article, via PhysOrg.com, reports that:

An angry crowd on Monday mobbed Turkey's health minister in this remote eastern town, home of the country's first bird flu deaths, as Ankara reported more human cases of the lethal disease, raising alarms over its menacing westward advance.

Some 100 people were awaiting test results, including 10 from Istanbul, the country's business hub on the doorstep of Europe, where the presence of the disease among poultry has already been confirmed, officials said.

Gadget of the Day: Linksys Networkable DVD Player

Very, very sweet.

Image source: Gizmodo

Via Gizmodo.

Here’s the KiSS DP-600 by Linksys, a DVD player that can playback Windows Media Video in HD, and has a built-in WLAN 802.11g connection for cable-free access to an online EPG, a selection of 3000 radio stations, and various other online features on the Internet or content on the home PC. Obviously designed to take advantage of all kinds of video on demand, it also supports online games.

Patch Tuesday: Still 2 Critical Microsoft Vulnerabilities Left to Patch

With all of the brouhaha over the latest, out-of-cycle Microsoft patch for the WMF vulnerability (MS06-001), don't forget there are still two (2) critical vulnerabilities for which patches will be made available tomorrow.

Via Microsoft.

On 10 January 2006 Microsoft is planning to release:

Security Updates

1 Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Windows. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates may require a restart. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA).

1 Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Office. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates may require a restart. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA).

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

Microsoft is planning to release an updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services and the Download Center.

Cell Phones as RC Car Controllers?

Via Red Herring.

Vroom, vroom...screech! These are some of the sounds that could soon be associated with cell phones as callers use them to steer a remote-control car.

In an attempt to further expand the usefulness of cell phones, Motorola has collaborated with remote-control toy manufacturer Nikko and Freescale Semiconductor to make the Wireless Wheels car.

“It’s the fusion of mobile technology and toys,” said Peter Aloumanis, general manager for the U.S. division of Motorola’s iDEN mobile devices. “Motorola is exploring new applications for short-range wireless communication technologies and is having fun doing it.”

Wireless Wheels is one-sixteenth the size of a real race car, and uses Freescale’s Personal Area Network technology and a phone attachment to connect with a number of Motorola iDEN phones.

Create an e-Annoyance, Go to Jail?

Declan McCullagh writes on C|Net News:

Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.

More here.

Ben Edelman: 180's Newest Deceptive Installation Practices

Doll Idol is but one of many 180solutions partners targeted at children.
Image source: benedelman.org

Ben Edelman writes in his excellent blog on all things adware and spyware:

I've previously covered a variety of misleading and/or nonconsensual installations by 180solutions. I've recorded numerous installations through exploits -- without any user consent at all. I've found installations in poorly-disclosed bundles -- for example, disclosing 180's inclusion, but only if users happen to scroll to page 16 of a 54-page license. I've even documented deceptive installations at kids sites, where 180 installs without showing or mentioning a license agreement.

180 has cleaned up some of these practices, but the core deception remains. 180 still installs its software in circumstances where reasonable users wouldn't expect to receive such software -- including web sites that substantially cater to kids. And users still aren't fairly told what they're slated to receive. 180 says that it shows "advertising," but no on-screen text warns users that these ads appear in much-hated pop-ups. 180 systematically downplays the privacy consequences of installing its software -- prominently telling users what the software won't do, but failing to disclose what the software does track and transmit. All told, users may have to press a button before 180 installs on their computer, but users can't reasonably be claimed to understand what they're purportedly accepting.

More here.

UT, IBM Join Open-Source Project

Via The Austin Business Journal.

The University of Texas and IBM Corp. are part of a new initiative aimed at boosting open-source software.

High-tech companies, universities and the Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation will work on guidelines for developing open-source software and managing intellectual property.

Google Increases Lead Over Yahoo! in Search

Juan Carlos Perez writes on InfoWorld:

Google pulled away from Yahoo in search engine usage during November in a major way, according to comScore Networks.

Google nabbed almost 40 percent of all searches in the U.S., a commanding lead of more than 10 percentage points over Yahoo, which took second place, comScore said on Friday.

'A Rough Guide to The State of The Internet, Circa 2006'

(Thanks for the pointer, Jon!)

Click for large image.

Court Lets UT-Online Dating Ruling Stand

An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to intervene in a dispute between the University of Texas and an online dating service upset that the school blocked thousands of unsolicited e-mails.

The high court let stand a federal appeals court's ruling that UT did not violate the constitutional rights of White Buffalo Ventures when it blocked 59,000 e-mails in 2003.

White Buffalo Ventures, which operates LonghornSingles.com, said it had complied with all anti-spam laws and argued that a federal act that allows certain e-mails superseded the university's anti-spam policy.

DRM Foobar Prevents 'Munich' Voters From Reviewing Film

Via Boing Boing.

Steven Spielberg will most likely not get any nomination for the BAFTA (British Film Academy) awards for "Munich" because of a massive DRM cock-up. BAFTA's 3,000+ members were sent encrypted 'screener' DVDs that can only be played on special DVD players supplied by Cinea (www.cinea.com - a Dolby subsidiary).

First the DVDs were held up by UK customs, thereby missing the first round voting deadline. But when they arrived, they would not play on any machine because they had been mastered for Region 1 (North America). As BAFTA members are cannot vote for films they have not seen and only a handful of preview screenings have been held, the film ought to be disqualified from consideration. I can't imagine Spielberg will be best pleased about this.

More here.

EMC Acquires Internosis

Dawn Kawamoto writes on C|Net News:

EMC, the storage and information management giant, has acquired a privately held services company called Internosis.

Internosis, a Greenbelt, Md.-based company, focuses on IT strategy, application development, infrastructure and managed services for corporations that use Microsoft applications.

H5N1 News: Russia May Close Border with Turkey

Via RIA Novosti.

Russia's chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko said Monday that the border with Turkey would have to be closed if bird flu continued to spread in the country. Onishchenko said in comments on the need to temporarily ban travels to Turkey on Ekho Moskvy radio: "If the situation aggravates, we will ban [travels], although in line with World Health Organization requirements." He added that it was premature to resort to the measure.

Onishchenko said Russia had suggested sending experts to Turkey, but the latter had not made any response so far.

Texas Instruments to Sell Unit for $3B

An AP newswire article, via SFGate.com, reports that:

Texas Instruments Inc., one of the world's oldest and largest chip makers, said Monday it is selling its sensors and controls business for $3 billion in cash to Bain Capital LLC, a private investment firm.

The sensor unit supplies engineered sensors and controls to the automotive, aircraft and appliance industries among others. The business is headquartered in Attleboro, Mass. It has about 5,400 employees in the Americas, Europe and Asia, and more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

Toon: Big Brother is Watching You

Click for larger image.

Australia: Wireless on ACCC Broadband Radar

Andrew Colley writes on Australian IT:

AUSTRALIA'S competition watchdog said it planned to include wireless internet services in its national broadband research for the first time this year.

Each quarter the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission publishes figures on adoption of broadband connections in Australia. However, to date, the regulator has chosen not to include wireless internet in its "snapshot" of Australia's broadband market.

"They're not collected," ACCC Telecommunications general manager Michael Cosgrove said. "That's something we're planning to rectify this year."

Australia's telecommunications industry has to date been without a reliable indicator of how many Australians use wireless internet services.

AT&T, EchoStar Talks Bog Down

Via Red Herring.

Less than a week after its unannounced entry into the television business, AT&T, the carrier formerly known as SBC Communications, has reportedly cooled to the prospect of buying satellite TV operator EchoStar Communications.

Talks between AT&T, the entity created by the merger of SBC and AT&T, and EchoStar, which operates Dish Networks, bogged down on the twin issues of price and control according to BusinessWeek Online.

YellowPages.com in Distribution Deal With Yahoo!

Via Businessweek Online.

Yellowpages.com LLC, a joint venture between AT&T Corp. and BellSouth Corp., said on Friday it forged a distribution deal with Yahoo Inc., which will give Yellowpages.com advertisers placement on two Yahoo properties, Yahoo Local and Yahoo Yellow Pages.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Qwest Says It Can Charge You If Your Computer Spams Anyone

Mike Masnick writes over on techdirt.com:

Ridiculous terms of service from telcos are really nothing new.

[...]

Even more interesting, though, is the spam clause. If Qwest discovers your machine has been hijacked by a trojan and is sending out spam, you're liable for $5/spam message. Now, I'm sure some folks will suggest that it's the computer owners' responsibility to protect their machines, and the threat of a $5/spam fine could wake a few folks up who are lax in their computer security -- but it still seems to be a bit much for the average user who may simply have no idea why they suddenly appear to owe Qwest millions of dollars.

Buying Music From Anywhere and Selling It for Play on the Internet

Robert Levine writes in The New York Times:

Working in the media and entertainment group of the consultants McKinsey & Company, Greg Scholl got a firsthand look at the inefficiency in the music business: the major record labels focus on creating hits, and they rarely make money on releases that sell less than a few hundred thousand copies.

Now, as chief executive of The Orchard, a music distributor that sells to iTunes, Napster, Yahoo and other digital music services, Mr. Scholl is trying to exploit that inefficiency.

The Orchard is seeking to make money by purchasing music from small independent and foreign labels, and then distributing it to digital music services.

Yahoo! Teams Up with Sheraton Hotels

Susan Kuchinskas writes on internetnews.com:

Since the dawn of the dot-com era, Yahoo has had a billboard near the entrance to the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Patterned after motel signs of the 1950s, it says, "Yahoo: A nice place to stay on the Internet."

Thanks to a deal with Sheraton Hotels announced on Monday, Yahoo is making a nice place to stay in hotel lobbies.

In what the companies said was an industry first, the hotelier and the online media company have teamed to create a co-branded Web portal and branded Internet lounges in Sheraton hotels.

User Friendly: CD EULAs

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

The 'Other' CES: The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo

Thomas K. Arnold writes for Reuters:

The Consumer Electronics Show wasn't the only entertainment trade show in [Las Vegas] last week.

Sharing space with CES at the Sands Expo Center was trade publication Adult Video News' annual AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, the traditional start-of-year showcase for the booming adult industry.

In the first quantitative study conducted in three years, Adult Video News estimates consumers spent $12.6 billion on adult entertainment last year.

Europe Moves Ahead With Weather Satellite Blacklist

Peter de Selding writes on Space.com:

European government officials may resent the fact that the U.S. government is forcing them to create a blacklist of organizations that will not be granted access to weather-satellite data from Europe's future polar-orbiting satellites, which will include U.S. government-supplied instruments. But they have nonetheless agreed to create such a list this year.

The list to be provided by the 18-nation Eumetsat organization will have the effect of determining what organizations may be denied data from Eumetsat's Metop satellites following a U.S. request during an emergency.

Macworld Expo: Rumor Recap

Via ThinkSecret.

With Macworld Expo San Francisco 2006 set to kick off Tuesday, Think Secret presents a compilation of information we have received and reported over the last number of months concerning Apple's anticipated announcements.

Much more here.

Adults Question MySpace's Safety

Janet Kornblum writes in USA Today:

As MySpace booms in popularity among teens, it also is drawing the wrath of parents and school officials who are concerned about the off-color nature of some pages and the safety of young users who give too much information about themselves.

Many schools have blocked MySpace so students can't access it from school computers. And at least one private school, Pope John XXIII High School in Sparta, N.J., recently made headlines when it told students that they could face suspension for using the site even off campus.

"Parents aren't happy," says Internet safety expert Parry Aftab. "Schools are unhappy."

Dilbert: Our Lovable Customers

Click for larger image.

H5N1 News: Five More Case of Human Avian Flu in Turkey

An AP newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

Turkey reported five new human cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in preliminary tests Monday, a Health Ministry official said.

The tests were conducted in Turkish labs on samples provided by five people suspected of having the disease, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.

The new cases raise the number of human bird flu cases in Turkey to 15. They have not yet been confirmed by the World Health Organization.

Yahoo! Joins Hands With Hunan Satellite TV For Entertainment Service

Via ChinaTechNews.com.

Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, has told the local media that Yahoo! Search has joined hands with Hunan Satellite TV and Huayi Brothers to create a new entertainment performance show called "Yahoo! Star Search" in 2006.

Yahoo! will invest RMB30 million into the event. It also plans to invite three famous Chinese film directors, Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang and Zhangjizhong, to each make short programs themed around Yahoo! search, which will then be broadcast to users.

'Bigfoot' Excitement Mounting in Malaysia

An AFP newswire article, via PhysOrg.com, reports that:

Excitement is mounting in Malaysia over claims of "Bigfoots" lurking in its southern jungles, with wildlife experts on the hunt for the mythical beast and a telephone hotline set up to report sightings.

Bigfoot fever erupted last month when some fish farm workers claimed to have spotted three of the beasts -- two adults and a youngster -- on the edge of a forest reserve in southern Johor state.

NASA to Return First Comet Samples to Earth

An AP newswire article by Alicia Chang, via USA Today, reports that:

Six months after NASA scientists first peeked inside one comet from afar, they're bringing pieces of another to Earth for study under the microscope.

This weekend, the Stardust spacecraft will jettison a 100-pound capsule holding comet dust. It will nosedive through the Earth's atmosphere and — if all goes well — make a soft landing in the Utah desert.

Next-Generation DVD Format War Frustrates Retailers

A Reuters newswire article by Franklin Paul, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Consumers, confused over the brewing battle between next-generation DVD technologies, are not alone: top U.S. electronics retailers at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas called the war "nightmarishly unfriendly" and "stupid."

Stores like Best Buy, Circuit City and closely held CompUSA may sell millions of devices, either HD DVD or its rival, Blu-ray, and some day one version could be obsolete, drawing the ire of their customers. What's more, many will chose not to buy any device, instead waiting for one format to win.

The Wiretappers That Couldn't Shoot Straight

A New York Times OpEd piece by Frank Rich, via Nevada Thunder, waxes eloquently:

ALMOST two weeks before The New York Times published its scoop about our government’s extralegal wiretapping, the cable network Showtime blew the whole top-secret shebang. In its mini-series “Sleeper Cell,” about Islamic fundamentalist terrorists in Los Angeles, the cell’s ringleader berates an underling for chatting about an impending operation during a phone conversation with an uncle in Egypt. “We can only pray that the N.S.A. is not listening,” the leader yells at the miscreant, who is then stoned for his blabbing.

If fictional terrorists concocted by Hollywood can figure out that the National Security Agency is listening to their every call, guess what? Real-life terrorists know this, too. So when a hyperventilating President Bush rants that the exposure of his warrant-free wiretapping in a newspaper is shameful and puts “our citizens at risk” by revealing our espionage playbook, you have to wonder what he is really trying to hide.

More here.

CES: 20 Ways to Converge When We Only Need 2 or 3

An excellent article by Mike Langberg in The Mercury News:

There's an old saying that captures all the big announcements last week at the annual Consumer Electronics Show here: ``If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.''

In other words, the tools you use determine how you see the world.

The nail, in this case, is digital convergence -- the epic shift of electronic entertainment, information and communications to the Internet.

Each technology heavyweight presenting its version of the future at CES wielded a different hammer, based on its background and strengths.

The upshot is that there are simply too many products out there and they don't yet work well together. That's why 2006 won't be the year convergence becomes mainstream in U.S. households.

Gapingvoid.com fix...

Via gapingvoid.com. Enjoy!

The Great Firewall of China

Ricahrd Taylor writes for The BBC:

With a rapidly expanding online population, it is tempting to see China as hurtling full speed towards digital nirvana, but all is not quite what it seems.

Somewhere along the way the idea that the Chinese people should be allowed to inform and be informed appears to have been lost.

China is proof that the net can be developed and strangled all at once.

User Friendly: IT Agony Bingo!

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

Telecom Hearings in Senate Commerce Committee

Thanks to David Isenberg for providing this information on his isen.blog blog:

If you're looking for the direct effect of the Internet on democracy, the webcasts of these U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearings are a good find.

Here's the Commerce Committee's telecom schedule:

Thursday, January 19 10:00 AM -- Decency

Thursday, January 19 2:30 PM -- Internet Pornography

Tuesday, January 24 10:00 AM -- Video Franchising

Tuesday, January 24 2:30 PM -- Video Content

Thursday, January 26 10:00 AM -- Competition and Convergence

Tuesday, January 31 10:00 AM -- Broadcast and Audio Flag

Tuesday, February 7 10:00 AM -- Net Neutrality

Tuesday, February 14 10:00 AM -- Municipal Networks

Wednesday, February 15 10:00 AM -- FCC Activities and Policy

Tuesday, February 28 10:00 AM -- USF Contributions

Tuesday, February 28 2:30 PM -- USF Distributions

Thursday, March 2 10:00 AM -- Wireless Issues/Spectrum Reform

Tuesday, March 7 10:00 AM -- Rural Telecommunications

Tuesday, March 14 10:00 AM -- Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

Tuesday, March 14 2:30 PM -- Wall Street and Telecommunications

H5N1 News: 3 More People Found with Bird Flu in Turkish Capital

A Reuters newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

Turkey announced on Sunday that three people had tested positive for bird flu in the Turkish capital, Ankara, marking a further westward advance of the infection toward the frontiers of Europe.

Ankara Governor Kemal Onal told the state-run Anatolia news agency that two children and one adult had been diagnosed with the infection; but it was not clear if they were suffering from the deadly H5N1 strain that has killed three people in the remote east of the country.

Fergie's Tech Blog

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Hey, Baby Bells: Information Still Wants to Be Free

In Bahrain, The Web Takes On The Ruling Elite

Doctor Bans Boy From Playstation To Stop Head Twitching

Flu Viruses Becoming Resistent to Antiviral Drugs

User Friendly: Pablum for the Masses

Wal-Mart Employees Expose Terror Cell's Bulk Phone Purchase

Google's Most Popular and Least Popular TLDs

SuperPages.com Ads Appear on MSN

Looking at the WMF Issue: How Did it Get There?

UK: NTL Under Fire Again for Poor Customer Service

Iraqi Telecom Chief Seeks to Build From Scratch

ShmooCon: Covert Crawler Descends on Web

NSA's Web Site Rendered Inaccessible for Several Hours Friday

U.S. Agencies Probing Sales of Cellphone Data

Friday, January 13, 2006

Tension Grows Between Labels and Digital Radio

The ToiletPod

Texas Transit System Smart-Card Deal Awarded to ACS

Former Enron CEO Ken Lay Takes Case to the Internet

Attorney General to Testify on Domestic Spying

Toon: Lying Western Dogs!

Qwest Surrenders After Broadbanders Revolt Over Spam AUP

NZ Telecom Pays $12M to Telstra Over Pricing Dispute

Dilbert: The Sweet Nectar of Freedom

Steve Gibson: MS WMF is a Backdoor, Not a Coding Mistake

More Freakish Friday the 13th News: Vampire Candidate 'Won't Hide Evil Side'

Digital DJs 'Unaware of Copy Law'

Friday the 13th: What's the Worst That Could Happen?

UK: CCTV Peeping Toms Jailed

European Political Blogs Lagging Behind U.S.

Web Site of Agency Is Called Insecure

Friday the Thirteenth

Kudos to the USPS : Team Effort in Detroit Spamming Arrest

User Friendly: Illegally Annoying Silence

Microsoft Plans Launch of Search Ad System

Pentagon Grilled Over Database on War Critics

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Get Popular, Get Targeted: DDoS Attack Cited in Million Dollar Homepage Outage

The Real Mark of The Beast: New Zealand's Rakon Develops World's Smallest GPS Receiver

In Northern California, A Fault Line for 'Intelligent Design'

Congress to Examine Tech Firms That Enable 'Great Firewall of China'

NASA's Comet Hunter on Final Approach for Sunday Landing

Music Stops for Mac Windows Media Player

UnReal ID: Frustration Over Driver's License Law

SEC Opens Formal Investigation of IBM

Wal-Mart Wins Back Chinese Domain Names

Beijing To Lift Operation Limits On Internet Cafes

H5N1 News: Genetic Change in Bird Flu Sample Detected

$1.1B Settlement Between Microsoft, California

U.S. Military Clamping Down on Security

Sicko Using Kids Site to Download Spyware and Porn

FCC to Auction Internet Wireless Airwaves on Planes

U.S. Army Releases SatCom RFP

Find NPR Coverage Using Google Maps

IRS Tracked U.S. Taxpayers’ Political Affiliation

Court Dismisses Yahoo! Free Speech Suit

F-Secure: The 'Symantec Rootkit'

Sprint Employee Refuses to Divulge Kidnapped Baby's GPS Info

Toon: Alas, Poor Yorick...

3 Out of 4 Adults Registered for Do-Not-Call Registry

Japanese Software Bugs Bite Back

UK: Computer Problems Driving People to Drink (and Smoke)

Cisco Aironet Wireless Access Point Memory Exhaustion Vulnerability

Nikon to Stop Making Most Cameras That Use Film

Dilbert: Free-Range Newbies

Can ISPs Recover Data Retention Costs in the UK?

Nortel Centrex IP Client Manager Multiple Vulnerabilities

Space Tornado! Cosmic Front Packs a Punch

Firefox Restricted by Incompatible Websites

Dell Alleges Firm Falsely Invoiced Its Customers

No XP on Intel Macs, But Vista is Good to Go

February Meeting on Internet Governance

User Friendly: The Heat of the Game

Anonymity Won't Kill the Internet

Vietnam to Privatize Two Largest Mobile Phone Companies

German Cannibal Back on Trial for Eating Internet Volunteer

Students Use Web to Unmask Sex Offender

Blackberry to Get Google Talk and Google Local