Fergie's Tech Blog: 04/02/2006

U.S. Is Studying Military Strike Options on Iran

Image source: www.whitehouse.org

Folks, we need to impeach Bush as soon as humanly possible.

Or at least ensure that no remnants remain of his adminstration when he is out of office in 2009 -- that means getting out to vote Republicans out of office in November 2006.

Make sure you VOTE.

This man is a danger to us all.

And before you think I'm some liberal Democratic alarmist, let me assure you otherwise -- I'm a U.S. Army combat veteran who voted for George W, Bush, and now (embrassingly), I'm eager to say I was wrong. Dead wrong. Call me a Libertarian now, if you will.

I am quite alarmed at his abuse of power, and his adminstration's assault on our individual liberties, our constitutional freedoms, his fundamental christian "inspirations", and his ability to annhiliate the American people in all shapes and forms.

Be afraid -- be very afraid of this man.

Peter Baker, Dafna Linzer and Thomas E. Ricks write in The Washington Post:

The Bush administration is studying options for military strikes against Iran as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Tehran to abandon its alleged nuclear development program, according to U.S. officials and independent analysts.

No attack appears likely in the short term, and many specialists inside and outside the U.S. government harbor serious doubts about whether an armed response would be effective. But administration officials are preparing for it as a possible option and using the threat "to convince them this is more and more serious," as a senior official put it.

According to current and former officials, Pentagon and CIA planners have been exploring possible targets, such as the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan. Although a land invasion is not contemplated, military officers are weighing alternatives ranging from a limited airstrike aimed at key nuclear sites, to a more extensive bombing campaign designed to destroy an array of military and political targets.

More here.

9 April 1919: Happy Birthday, J. Presper Eckert

00:01

John Presper Eckert
Image source: IEEE Virtual Museum

Via Wikipedia.

John Presper Eckert, a computer pioneer, was born April 9, 1919 in Philadelphia and died June 3, 1995 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Together with John W. Mauchly he constructed the ENIAC, sometimes considered the first electronic digital computer, from 1941-1945 (but see John Vincent Atanasoff and Atanasoff-Berry Computer for conflicting claims). Mauchly concentrated on the overall design while Eckert constructed the electronic circuits.

Both Eckert and Mauchly left the Moore School at the University of Pennsylvania in March 1946, mainly because of two reasons: in that year, the University of Pennsylvania adopted a new patent policy to protect the intellectual purity of the research it sponsored, which would have required Eckert and Mauchly to assign all their patents to the university had they stayed beyond March; and the conflict over widely-adopted term von Neumann architecture that ignores the developers of the ENIAC, viz. Mauchly and Eckert among others who also devised the stored-program concept when they understood the limitations of ENIAC.

Herman Lukoff credits Eckert with the idea of the stored program.) Eckert and Mauchly's agreement with the University of Pennsylvania was that Eckert and Mauchly retained the patent rights to the ENIAC but the University could license it to the government and non-profit organizations. The University wanted to change the agreement so that they would also have commercial rights to the patent.

Eckert and Mauchly started up the Electronic Control Company which built the Binary Automatic Computer (BINAC). One of the major advances of this machine, which was used from August 1950, was that data was stored on magnetic tape rather than on punched cards. Electronic Control Company soon became the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and it received an order from the National Bureau of Standards to build the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC). In 1950, Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation ran into financial troubles and was acquired by Remington Rand Corporation. The UNIVAC I was finished in December 1950.

Eckert remained with Remington Rand and became an executive within the company. He continued with Remington Rand as it merged with the Burroughs Corporation to become Unisys in 1986. In 1989, Eckert retired from Unisys but continued to act as a consultant for the company. He died of leukemia in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA.

More here.

Defense Tech: Bunker Busters Readied -- Iran Attack Near?

Image source: Defense Tech

Via Defense Tech.

As you've probably heard by now, Sy Hersh has a new scoop: that planning for an attack on Iran is further along than you think, and that nukes might be involved:

One of the military’s initial option plans, as presented to the White House by the Pentagon this winter, calls for the use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, against underground nuclear sites. One target is Iran’s main centrifuge plant, at Natanz, nearly two hundred miles south of Tehran. Natanz... reportedly has underground floor space to hold fifty thousand centrifuges, and laboratories and workspaces buried approximately seventy-five feet beneath the surface. That number of centrifuges could provide enough enriched uranium for about twenty nuclear warheads a year...

The elimination of Natanz would be a major setback for Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but the conventional weapons in the American arsenal could not insure the destruction of facilities under seventy-five feet of earth and rock, especially if they are reinforced with concrete.

More here.

Spanish Police Swoop in on Internet Pornography and Piracy

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

Spanish police arrested 28 people in major operations targeting Internet child pornography and media piracy, police and the interior ministry said.

Police arrested 15 people suspected of involvement in piracy -- mainly computer engineers and members of Internet service companies -- in an operation the ministry described as "without precedent in Europe".

In a separate operation, police arrested 13 men aged 20 to 68, suspected of accessing a file-sharing site featuring a video of an adult raping a nine-year-old girl.

More here.

Comedy Central: Leading A Humor Revolution

Frank Ahrens writes in The Washington Post:

Launched on cable in 1991, Comedy Central was, for most of that decade, a small-viewership niche channel that was probably best known for the cult show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and being the first home of Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect."

That all changed in 1997 when "South Park" debuted, boosting the channel's audience and transforming it into a mainstream success -- and, indeed, must-see viewing for many now, with "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report."

Similarly, over the past few years, the channel -- which, like MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon, is owned by Viacom Inc. -- has developed a broad and deep Web site full of repurposed content seen on television and added Web-only material.

More here.

MIT Pranksters Nab Caltech Cannon

Caltech’s cannon was purloined by pranksters and turned up in front
of MIT’s Green Building Thursday morning.
Image source: LA Times / Grant Jordan / The Tech

Arin Gincer writes in The LA Times:

In the ongoing battle of the nerds between Caltech and MIT, the latest volley has been fired from a 130-year-old cannon.

Actually, the latest volley is a cannon.

Massachusetts pranksters, posing as professional movers, stole the beloved Fleming Cannon — traditionally fired at each year's commencement — from the Pasadena campus last week.

On Thursday it popped up, pointed toward Pasadena and adorned with an oversized Massachusetts Institute of Technology school ring, at the Cambridge campus next to a plaque referring to Caltech as "its previous owners."

The plaque explained that the students created the phony "Howe & Ser Moving Company" and used fake work-order forms to get past Caltech campus security guards. After that, a real shipping company toted the 2-ton relic across the country.

More here.

Yes! Rolling Stones Ride Roughshod Over China’s Censors

Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones performs in the 8,000-seat Shanghai Grand
Stage in Shanghai, China, on Saturday.
Image source: MSNBC / Greg Baker / AP

A Reuters newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

The Rolling Stones rode roughshod over China’s censors during their first show in the communist country on Saturday, serenading a largely foreign crowd with songs about Satan, sleaze bags and serial killers.

Much was made before their Shanghai show of a ban on playing five songs, including concert standards “Honky Tonk Women,” and “Brown Sugar.” But they managed to toss a few risque tunes into their two-hour set at the Shanghai Grand Stage.

“It’s nice to be here, the first time we’ve played in China,” Mick Jagger told the boisterous 8,000-strong crowd, as the Stones made their China debut after two failed attempts dating as far back as 1980. “It’s fantastic,” he said.

More here.

User Friendly: Google Loathing

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

First Images from Mars Orbiter's High Resolution Camera Wow Researchers

This is the first color image of Mars from the HiRISE.
This is not natural color as seen by human eyes, but infrared color.
This image also has been processed to enhance subtle color variations.
Image source: NASA / JPL

David Leonard writes on Space.com:

Scientists are delighted with early shakeout shots by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.

Late last week, another series of test images were released by the HiRISE Operations Center (HiROC) at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson.

HiRISE is the newest and most powerful camera now orbiting the red planet. Test images of Mars using the equipment were taken on March 23 and on March 25.

"The images are wonderful," said Alfred McEwen, leader of the HiRISE instrument at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "We’re learning a great deal about how to best acquire and process these giant images from our very complicated camera," he explained in a university press statement.

More here.

Google Wi-Fi Plan Stirs Big Brother Concerns

Verne Kopytoff writes in The San Francisco Chronicle:

Privacy advocates are raising concerns about Google Inc.'s plans to cover San Francisco with free wireless Internet access, calling the company's proposal to track users' locations a potential gold mine of information for law enforcement and private litigators.

The Mountain View search engine intends to use the geographic data to match users with advertising so that they would see marketing messages from neighborhood businesses such as pizza parlors, cafes and book stores.

More here.

'Megahacker' Extradited from Argentina to Spain

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

A 24-year-old Spanish man arrived in Madrid on Friday to face accusations of hacking hundreds of thousands of Euros from bank accounts after being extradited from Argentina.

Jose Manuel Garcia Rodriguez arrived at Madrid's Barajas airport from Buenos Aires flanked by two Interpol officers seven months after Argentine authorities detained him.

He is accused of breaking into bank accounts after illegally obtaining the owners' passwords.

Garcia Rodriguez fled Spain two years ago and was the subject of nine international warrants for his arrest, including three issued by a Madrid court.

More here.

Concern Over Pervasive RFID Tagging Spreads to Europe

RFID tag
Image source: BBC

David Reid writes for The BBC:

For all the benefits the technology promises, the roll-out of RFID is in danger of being derailed by the public's perception of it.

A Christian author in the US, for example, has just published a book claiming RFID will evolve into the mark of the beast featured in Revelations and presage the end of the world.

The technology has also attracted criticism from more moderate voices.

Among these is Vint Cerf. He is one of the inventors of the internet and is now employed by Google as the company's internet evangelist.

More here.

Lara Croft Raids Guinness World Records

Matt Chapman writes on vnunet.com:

Lara Croft has stolen the title of most successful human videogame heroine in the world in the Guinness World Records.

Guinness World Records said it was making the award because the star of the Tomb Raider series of games had transcended the boundaries of videogames and become a recognisable figure in mainstream society.

More here.

8 April 1869: Happy Birthday, Harvey Cushing

00:01

Stamp issued by the United States Postal Service commemorating Harvey Cushing.
Image source: Wikipedia

Via Wikipedia.

Harvey Williams Cushing (April 8, 1869 - October 7, 1939) was an American neurosurgeon and a pioneer of brain surgery. He is considered by many the greatest neurosurgeon of the 20th century. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Cushing graduated from Yale, where he was a member of Scroll and Key, studied medicine at Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1895.

He completed his internship at Massachusetts General Hospital and then studied surgery under the guidance of a famous surgeon, William Stewart Halsted, at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore. During his medical career he was a surgeon at this hospital, at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston and as professor of surgery at the Harvard Medical School. From 1933, until his death, he worked at Yale University.

In the beginning of the 20th century he developed many of the basic surgical techniques for operating on the brain. This establised him as one of the foremost leaders and experts in the field. Under his influence neurosurgery became a new and autonomous surgical discipline.

More here.

DHS Official Had Previous Pornography Incident

Justine Redman writes on CNN.com:

A Department of Homeland Security spokesman charged with soliciting a minor over the Internet was disciplined in a previous job after an incident in which pornographic images were seen on an office computer, his friends and former co-workers said.

Brian Doyle resigned from his Homeland Security Department post Friday, his 56th birthday.

Doyle remains in a Maryland detention center where he awaits extradition to Polk County, Florida. There he is charged with seven counts of solicitation of a minor and 16 counts of transmitting pornographic material to a minor. An extradition hearing is scheduled for May 4.

More here.

Freescale and Motorola Ditch the UWB Forum

Image source: Engadget

Paul Miller writes over on Engadget:

This could be a bloody one.

After Bluetooth SIG picked the WiMedia Alliance last week for their Bluetooth successor -- and with hopes to end the bickering between WiMedia Alliance and the UWB Forum -- Motorola and Freescale, founding members of the UWB Forum, are splitting off to do their own "Cable Free USB" thing.

More here.

Update: Child Porn Charge Against DoD IPv6 Director Dropped

Patience Wait writes on GCN.com:

Two weeks after a Defense Information Systems Agency official was arrested on a charge of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s office handling the case dropped the charge. But a spokeswoman in the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the investigation is continuing.

“This is an ongoing investigation, so we don’t have any comments,” the spokeswoman said.

Charles Lynch, director of DISA’s IP version 6 transition program, was arrested March 8 and indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia the next day on one count of possessing child pornography.

According to a statement by the DOD Inspector General’s Office, court documents alleged that Lynch had been operating a peer-to-peer file-sharing program on a computer in his office at DISA. Agents confiscated several computers and more than 1,000 CDs from Lynch’s office.

Lynch, 44, is on leave without pay from DISA.

More here.

Judge OKs AOL Class-Action Settlement

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

A judge has approved a $2.65 billion class-action settlement of claims that advertising revenue was counted in a fraudulent manner prior to the merger of America Online Inc. and Time Warner Inc.

U.S. District Judge Shirley Wohl Kram signed a ruling approving the deal Thursday. She had given the settlement tentative approval in September 2005.

The settlement resulted from lawsuits brought by shareholders who complained that AOL improperly accounted for dozens of advertising transactions, inflating revenue for 15 quarters between 1998 and 2002.

More here.

Microsoft Looks to Thwart 'Typosquatters' With New Tool

Ryan Narain writes on eWeek:

Microsoft Research has released a new tool to help pinpoint large-scale typo-squatters that are known to be gaming pay-per-click domain parking services.

The lightweight prototype, called Strider URL Tracer, builds on the work within Microsoft's Cybersecurity and Systems Management group to keep tabs on a sophisticated typos-quatting scheme that uses multilayer URL redirection to make money from Google's AdSense for domains program.

Yi-Min Wang, who heads up the group's work in Redmond, Wash., said URL Tracer can be used as a parental control tool to block inappropriate ads from being served from Web sites that are set up to deliberately lure kids who accidentally misspell a popular domain.

One live example, Wang said, is the way the virtual pet site at NeoPets.com has been targeted by typo-squatters to serve pornographic-themed ads if it is misspelled. One such misspelling, neoppets.com, is currently serving ads promising naked photos of Britney Spears or other adult images.

More here.

Aussies Seek Input on Telstra Sale

A UPI news brief, via PhysOrg.com, reports that:

Australian Finance Minister Nick Minchin will visit European and Japanese investors later this month to discuss the proposed sale of telco Telstra.

Minchin wants to get an idea of how much interest there is in world financial circles in the planned sale of the government's 51.8-percent stake in Telstra.

More here.

Wiretap Whistleblower: Mark Klein's Statement

Via Wired News.

Former AT&T technician Mark Klein has come forward to support the EFF's lawsuit against AT&T for its alleged complicity in the NSA's electronic surveillance.

Here, Wired News publishes Klein's public statement in its entirety.

More here.

StreamCast to Seek Trial in Copyright Case

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

StreamCast Inc., the company behind the Morpheus online file-swapping software, said Friday negotiations to settle a five-year copyright battle with the entertainment industry have failed and it will now fight the case in court.

"I am really disappointed that we weren't able to reach settlement terms with the plaintiffs," said StreamCast CEO Michael Weiss. "Now we want our day in court."

The company planned to file a motion with U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson in Los Angeles later in the day seeking a jury trial and responding to a demand for summary judgment by the Hollywood movie studios and recording industry plaintiffs, Weiss said.

More here.

How The Anti-Virus Industry Is Turning A White Hat Black, or (at least) Gray

Via eMail Battles.

On the 28th day of December 2005, Tibbar encrypted the public version of Hacker Defender, the world-famous Windows rootkit. At the same time, the anonymous author unleashed codeCrypter on the web.

Then Tibbar waited.

On the first of March 2006, Tibbar ("Rabbit" spelled backwards) submitted the codeCrypter'd Hacker Defender to VirusTotal, an online virus testing service used by white and black hats alike.

The results were dispiriting. Despite two months' warning, just four of 24 anti-virus engines recognized Tibbar's creation: BitDefender, Ikarus, NOD32 and VBA32. Three a/v engines, CAT-QuickHeal, Fortinet and Panda, spotted something they considered suspicious.

Tibbar waited three weeks, then tried again at a different malware scanner: Jotti. The results were slightly more encouraging. This time, AntiVir, BitDefender, Dr. Web, Fortinet, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, NOD32 and VBA32 caught him. AVG AntiVirus caught a generic backdoor. That's eight of 15 vendors. Better.

On the fifth of April, Jack Koziol took up the gauntlet at Ethical Hacking and Computer Forensics. He packaged and resubmitted the codeCrypter'd Hacker Defender rootkit to VirusTotal. Sadly, his list of worthies expanded by only one. Kaspersky found the rootkit.

More here.

UK Politicians Shun .EU Domain Names

Mark Ward writes for The BBC:

The .eu net domain has been almost ignored by Britain's three main political parties.

Neither Labour, the Conservatives or Liberal Democrats have yet grabbed a .eu domain to match their party name.

The Conservative Party applied for two .eu domains but failed to get them because it missed a paperwork deadline.

More here.

Homeland Cyber-Sex Case Causes Concern

A "misstep"?

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

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday he did not believe a department official's alleged sexual misconduct resulted in a breach of national security, calling the case an individual's "misstep."

"From time to time, there will be instances when misconduct occurs," Chertoff said, referring to the arrest Tuesday of Brian J. Doyle, the department's fourth-ranking spokesman, on charges of sexually preying on a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl.

More here.

House Subpoenas Phone Data Sites

Roy Mark writes on internetnews.com:

Web sites selling confidential consumer telephone data are refusing to comply with a U.S. House of Representatives' request for information, prompting the Energy and Commerce Committee to issue subpoenas to a dozen companies.

The move is the latest in an ongoing investigation into the Internet sale of phone records and other personal information. In March, the committee approved legislation outlawing the sale of the records.

More here.

Court Filings Tell of Internet Spying

Via The New York Times.

A former AT&T technician said on Thursday that the company cooperated with the National Security Agency in 2003 to install equipment capable of "vacuum-cleaner surveillance" of e-mail messages and other Internet traffic.

A statement by the technician, Mark Klein, and several company documents he saved after retiring in 2004, were filed on Wednesday in a class-action lawsuit against AT&T. The suit, filed in January in federal court in San Francisco by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group, says the company helped the security agency invade its customers' privacy. The documents provided by Mr. Klein were filed under seal because of concerns about disclosing proprietary information.

Mr. Klein's documents, some of which he had provided to The New York Times, describe a room at the AT&T Internet and telephone hub in San Francisco that contained a piece of equipment that could sift through large volumes of Internet traffic.

More here.

Domain Registrar Exposes Customer Data

Jeremy Kirk writes on InfoWorld:

A database problem with a U.S. domain name registrar exposed sensitive financial and personal information relating to thousands of domain name registrations, a Dutch company said Friday.

DiscountDomainRegistry.com, of New York, fixed the problem shortly after being notified Thursday, said Nico Vandendries, chief executive officer of Strongwood, a private investigation company based in the Netherlands.

More here.

More Dirt: Direct Revenue Uses a PI to Hunt Down Antispyware Researcher

Direct Revenue again. What scumbags.

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

Ben Edelman has been posting new documents from the New York Attny General’s lawsuit as fast as he can. There’s much more that’s been posted, including a couple of emails from one of the VC firms that invested in them.

There’s also a number of references to “WebHelper”, who is actually now our spyware researcher Patrick Jordan (he joined us in July of last year but had been doing consulting work for us several months prior to his coming on board), and we now find he was being researched by a private investigator, as this email from Gary Kibel at Direct Revenue’s law firm shows.

More here.

Norway Aims to Reduce Microsoft Dependence

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

The Norwegian government said Friday it will increase its use of freely shared, open-source software to reduce its dependency on large computer companies like Microsoft Corp.

The Ministry of Government Administration and Reform said measures to increase use of open-source programs include a specialist panel to set standards for public information.

The government statement said the project will also set standards to allow various operating systems to communicate with one another.

More here.

Video Games Get Very, Very Naughty

In "Naughty America: The Game," players meet, flirt and have sex.
Image source: CNN

An AP newswire article, via CNN, reports that:

Online games have so far mainly revolved around the killing of fantasy monsters. The occasional fight with a Stormtrooper provides some variety.

Companies are now developing a handful of games -- though calling them that is a stretch -- designed to give players a very different option: making love, not war.

In "Naughty America: The Game," set to launch early this summer, players will assume the forms of alluring but cartoonish people who meet, flirt and have sex with other player characters.

More here.

Spy Tech: Teddy Bear Surveillance Camera

Image source: OhGizmo!

Andrew Liszewski writes on OhGizmo!:

Another day, another teeny camera hidden away somewhere unexpected. This time it’s a high resolution (NTSC or PAL) CMOS sensor stashed inside your standard teddy bear.

It has a built in 2.4 GHz transmitter which will allow you to monitor the camera VIA the included hand held remote’s 1.5 inch screen. Or the signal can be sent to a TV or VCR/Computer to be recorded for later review. The bear also has infrared illumination to facilitate a clear image even in a dark room.

UK: New Site Launched for Disgruntled Wanadoo Subscribers

Tim Richardson writes on The Register:

Wanadoo punters in the UK who've lost their broadband connection after being migrated to the ISP's LLU platform are being urged to air their problems on a new online forum.

Wanadoo Problems has been set up by fed-up Wanadoo punter Kevin Ellis, who has been without broadband now for eight weeks. As well as paying for a service he cannot use, he's also spent around £35 on calls to Wanadoo's helpline to try and resolve his problem.

More here.

Airlines Put Communications Company Up For Sale

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

ARINC, a 77-year-old military and aviation communications company owned primarily by the nation's largest airlines, is up for sale after more than a year of deliberations about how to raise the capital necessary to grow.

No potential buyers have yet come forward.

The Annapolis, Md.-based company, which had $890 million in revenue in 2005, derives two-thirds of its business from the U.S. military, for whom it provides wireless systems that allow all branches to communicate over multiple devices. Its systems are also the backbone for some 95 percent of the U.S. airline industry's air-to-ground communications, and roughly 70 percent of the global air-to-ground market.

More here.

User Friendly: More Wikipedia, Britannica, Nature

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

F-Secure: Direct Revenue Hate Mail

Image source: F-Secure

An instant classic.

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

In case we didn’t already know – people don’t like Spyware. Well, they really don’t like Spyware. The New York Attorney General's office has brought suit for illegal practices against Direct Revenue and the exhibits make for interesting reading. Ben Edelman has a copy of the case documents here. Exhibit 5 has more than a few examples of the hate mail that Direct Revenue received.

This is one of the less vulgar.

More here.

Defense Tech: High Energy Laser End-to-End Operational Simulation

Image source: Defense Tech

Haninah Levine writes on Defense Tech:

Let's say you're an Air Force bigwig. You need to decide whether to invest in some shiny new directed energy weapon. Sure, "attack at the speed of light" sounds mighty good, but will the weapon actually work under the conditions you’re interested in, or will it run into some obstacle – like, the atmosphere?

You can't just test-fire a mockup – because nothing similar exists yet, and, more importantly, because these things don't really scale very neatly. The experiences of other DE programs have got you worried.

Well, now there's a computer model to help you predict just how a high-energy laser (HEL) weapon will behave under real conditions. The High Energy Laser End-to-End Operational Simulation (HELEEOS), described in this upcoming paper, is the outcome of a multi-year, joint effort to create such a planning tool for use throughout the DOD and the military.

More here.

Distraction: Weird Fortune Cookies.

Props to John Paczkowski.

Crossplatform Virus - The Latest Proof of Concept

Via The Kaspersky Analyst's Blog.

We’ve received a new sample: another cross platform virus. This sample is the latest attempt to create malicious code which will infect both Linux and Win32 systems. It’s therefore been given a double name: Virus.Linux.Bi.a/ Virus.Win32.Bi.a

The virus is written in assembler and is relatively simple: it only infects files in the current directory. However, it is interesting in that it is capable of infecting the different file formats used by Linux and Windows - ELF and PE format files respectively.

More here.

Netcraft: March 2006 Hosting Reliability Survey

Via Netcraft.

Hostopia is the most reliable hosting company site this month, followed by Verio and iPowerWeb. This is the first appearance in our reliability rankings for Hostopia, which is based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and specializes in the wholesale hosting market, offering private-label web and application hosting plans for resellers.

This month's results showcase the reliability of the shared hosting sector, which traditionally offers the most affordable hosting. Three of the providers in the top 10 - iPowerWeb, Interland and MyHosting.com - offer hosting plans for less than $10 a month, while another five have entry-level accounts priced below $20. While price competition in recent years has tightened profit margins for many providers, hosting customers are finding that peak reliability and connectivity are more affordable than ever.

Three Linux sites are found in the top 10 this month, three on FreeBSD, two on Windows and two on Solaris.

More here.

Tomb Raider Delayed in U.S. Because of Breasts

Image source: XBoxic

Nick Farrell writes on The Inquirer:

The US launch of Tomb Raider: Legend has been delayed because a couple of scenes accidentally had a pair of breasts in the background.

We all know that next to Saudi Arabia, America has a terrible fear of breasts, despite the fact that half of the population have got them and the other half would like a pair to play with. But to avoid a repeat of the Nipplegate crisis that gripped America, the game’s release has been delayed.

Apparently the game contains a chapter set in Tokyo, where several women are dancing in the distance. The animators had initially modeled all the women naked, so they could simply drape different dresses around them later. For the sake of completeness they gave them nipples, as you do.

More here.

Google: Peek-a-Boo, We See You

A Reuters newswire article, via CNN/Money, reports that:

Internet search leader Google Inc. and service provider EarthLink were selected to provide a basic free wi-fi Internet service covering the entire city of San Francisco.

Google, which gets for 99 percent of its revenues from advertising, hopes to defray the costs of offering a free service through contextual advertising.

Google says users linking up with wi-fi transmitters placed around cities can be located to within a couple of blocks. This would open up a new level of advertising opportunities for the company, allowing it to serve tightly focused ads on its web pages from local businesses in the immediate area.

More here.

H-1B Visa Law Criticized

K. Oanh Ha writes in The Mercury News:

When a Sunnyvale tech company laid off the manager and most of his colleagues in its reliability testing group a year and a half ago, the manager said a few employees were spared -- younger, foreign workers on H-1B visas.

The laid-off manager was infuriated that as an American citizen, he wasn't given priority over the H-1B employees. The H-1B visa program allows employers to hire skilled foreign workers when there's a shortage of available American workers.

As Congress debates nearly doubling the number of highly skilled guest worker visas next year to 115,000, calls are mounting for an overhaul of Department of Labor's Foreign Labor Certification program. Critics have long charged that the foreign-worker program doesn't fulfill its primary mission: protecting American workers. They want stronger laws to preserve American jobs and argue the current system is prone to abuse and fraud.

More here.

Gapingvoid: Corporate Has-Beens

Via gapingvoid.com. Enjoy!

UK: Huge DVD Piracy Factory Uncovered

Via The BBC.

Five people have been arrested in a police raid on what is thought to be the largest DVD piracy factory discovered in the UK.

The Metropolitan Police's film piracy unit found more than 60 DVD copying machines and 30,000 blank discs in the search of the east London premises.

Officers said the factory in an industrial estate in Leyton was capable of producing 2,700 DVDs an hour.

More here.

F.B.I. and Justice Dept. Are Faulted Over Child Predators on Web

Joshua Brockman writes in The New York Times:

Lawmakers from both parties continued on Thursday to question the commitment of the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to halting the online exploitation of children. They also accused the agencies of failing to provide major witnesses for a Congressional investigation into the matter.

House members voiced their protest before and after testimony on the second day of hearings of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, part of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The tenor of the hearings, which focused on law enforcement efforts to capture online predators and rescue child victims, signaled that a showdown might be imminent.

More here.

390,000 Applications for .EU Names in the First 100 Minutes

A MacCentral article by Paul Meller, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

The registry for the .eu top level domain (TLD) received 390,000 applications in the first 100 minutes after registration was opened to all residents of the European Union, E.U. Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said Friday.

"At this speed, .eu will become a real competitor to .com," Reding said in a news conference Friday.

The .eu registry operator, Eurid vzw, has approved a number of registrars around the E.U. to handle applications.

More here.

7 April 1964: Happy Birthday, IBM System/360

00:01

Image source: IBM

Via Wikipedia.

The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a mainframe computer system family announced by International Business Machines on April 7, 1964. It was the first family of computers making a clear distinction between architecture and implementation. The chief architect of the S/360 was Gene Amdahl.

The S/360 was the most expensive CPU project in history. (The most expensive project of the 1960s was the Apollo program for moon exploration. IBM's System/360 was the second most expensive. S/360 machines were also heavily used in the Apollo project.) Fortune Magazine at the time referred to the project as IBM's "$5 billion gamble," and they were right. IBM absolutely bet the company on the System/360. (US$5 billion in 1964 dollars translates to about $30 billion in 2005 dollars.) The bet paid off.

More here.

Texas Instruments, NEC, Matsushita Consider 3G Partnership

Via Reuters.

Top mobile phone chip supplier Texas Instruments Inc., NEC Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. are in talks over possible cooperation in cellphones, Matsushita and NEC said on Friday.

NEC's chip unit, NEC Electronics Corp., and the cellphone unit of Matsushita, Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., are involved in the talks, they said, adding that nothing concrete has been decided.

But a source close to the talks said the five companies are aiming to set up a joint venture to develop microchips and software used in W-CDMA third-generation (3G) mobile phones to cut costs.

ore here.

DoD IPv6 Director Arrested on Possession of Child Porn

Holy shit.

Patience Wait writes on GCN.com:

A high-ranking Defense Department IT official has been arrested and indicted on child pornography charges.

Charles Lynch, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Internet Protocol version 6 transition program, was arrested March 8 and indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia the next day on one count of possessing child pornography.

According to a statement by the DOD Inspector General’s Office, court documents allege that Lynch had been operating a peer-to-peer file-sharing program on a computer in his office at DISA. Agents confiscated several computers and more than 1,000 CDs from Lynch’s office. Agents found child pornography in computer file folders, the IG’s statement said.

Lynch, 44, is on leave without pay from DISA. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

More here.

World's First Standalone Kernel Mode Bot?

Via eMail Battles.

A European student has just developed a Proof of Concept for what the developer believes is the world's first kernel mode IRCbot.

The creator, Tibbar ("Rabbit" spelled backwards), says the difference between this innovation and standard Windows rootkits lies in its crossover ability. Most Windows-based rootkits hide in device drivers, then depend on outside, usermode applications to get anything done.

More here.

U.S. Attorney General Won't Rule Out Warrantless Wiretaps of Purely Domestic Nature

Adam Schiff (D-CA)

Press release from the Office of Congressman Adam Schiff.

During a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee today, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-CA) questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about the NSA's secret domestic wiretapping program.

The Administration has cited the Authorization to Use Military Force and the commander in chief powers as authorizing the NSA to intercept international communications into and out of the U.S. of persons linked to al Qaeda or related terrorist organizations.

After citing his concerns that there was no limiting principle to the Administration's claim of authority in the War on Terror, Rep. Schiff asked the Attorney General whether the Administration believes it has the authority to wiretap purely domestic calls between two Americans without seeking a warrant.

"I’m not going to rule it out," responded the Attorney General.

More here.

(Thanks, Declan.)

Sprint Nextel Prepares to Take on DSL Providers

Marguerite Reardon writes on C|Net News:

Sprint Nextel is preparing to take on the big phone companies in the broadband market.

The assault on DSL is coming quietly, but recent announcements and development in Sprint's technology indicate that the company believes it can be the third pipe into the home--a pipe that would challenge the phone companies' DSL service and perhaps would rival even faster-than-DSL cable-modem service.

On Tuesday, Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, announced the Wireless-G Router for Mobile Broadband (WRT54G3G-NA), which allows Sprint mobile broadband customers to plug their broadband card, used to connect their laptops wirelessly, in to the PC Card slot on the router. The EV-DO mobile broadband connection is then turned into a shared 802.11g Wi-Fi connection. The companies are showing off the new router at the CTIA Wireless 2006 trade show here this week.

More here.

AccessLine Expands VoIP Services to Austin, San Antonio

Via The Austin Business Journal.

AccessLine Communications, a Voice over Internet Protocol services supplier in Bellevue, Wash., expanded its market footprint to Central Texas.

The company now serves an area that extends from San Antonio through Austin to Round Rock. AccessLine will market local, long-distance and toll-free services to small- and medium-sized businesses. It markets these services under the SmartVoice Service brand.

More here.

FTC, California Attorney General Halt Illegal Spam Operation

Via The U.S. FTC Website.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General of California have brought a permanent halt to an operation that sent millions of spam messages that violated federal and state laws. The settlement will bar future violations of the spam laws, will require the operators to monitor affiliates closely to assure that they are not violating state and federal laws, and requires that they give up approximately $475,000 in ill-gotten gains.

In April 2005, the FTC and the Attorney General of California charged that the defendants used third-party affiliates or “button pushers” to send spam hawking mortgage loans and other products and services. The operation used hyperlinks in the spam to refer consumers to Web sites operated by the defendants. Consumers forwarded more than 1.8 million of the defendants' e-mail messages to the FTC. Those messages demonstrated that the defendants were violating almost every provision of the CAN-SPAM Act, the law enforcers said.

More here.

Haywired: Feuding Owners in Court Over 'Lewd' Website

An AP newswire article, via The Globe and Mail, reports that:

Two feuding businessmen are headed to court, after one man created lewd images of the other and posted them on the Internet, using his rival's business name in the website address.

Richard Boucher, owner of Boucher's Furniture Store in Milford [New Hampshire], acknowledges creating the site, which showed a photo of Nick D'Augustine's face superimposed on a pornographic image, and another manipulated to show a penis attached to D'Augustine's head.

Boucher said his actions may have been wrong, but he was trying to even the score with D'Augustine, owner of Oak Furniture Store in Amherst, whom he accuses of trying to ruin his business.

More here.

Gapingvoid: This Is My One Shot

Via gapingvoid.com. Enjoy!

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft to Patch 5 Vulnerabilites

Via Microsoft.

On 11 April 2006 Microsoft is planning to release:

Security Updates

Four Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Windows. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. Some of these updates will require a restart. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and the Enterprise Scan Tool. One of the updates will be a cumulative Internet Explorer update that addresses the publicly known "CreateTextRange" vulnerability.

One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows. The highest Maximum Severity rating for this is Moderate. These updates may require a restart. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and the Enterprise Scanning Tool.

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

Microsoft will 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.

More here.

Banks Rap Internet Anti-Gambling Proposal

Roy Mark writes on internetnews.com:

Legislation designed to put a dent in Internet gambling ran into opposition Wednesday from the banking industry and, surprisingly, the Traditional Values Coalition.

The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act proposes to make it illegal for Americans to use the Internet for gambling and would authorize law enforcement officials to stop credit card payments and other forms of electronic payments.

"Our concern is that the added burden of monitoring all payment transactions for the taint of Internet gambling will drain finite resources currently engaged in complying with anti-terrorism, anti-money laundering regulations and the daily operation of our bank," Samuel Vallandingham, representing the Independent Bankers of America, told a House subcommittee.

Vallandingham added, "Ultimately, we question whether the Internet gambling bills currently before the House will efficiently regulate the targeted behavior at a level which will justify the time and expense required by community banks to comply with another level of regulation."

More here.

Japanese Companies Checking Employee PC Use

An AP newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

For many years now, companies have been able to keep track of every Web site visited, e-mail sent and file accessed by their workers through readily available tracking software.

Now a growing number of Japanese employers are monitoring their staff with the help of homegrown programs designed to spy on their workers' every move, a specialist said Thursday.

A recent study has shown that over 30 percent of large Japanese companies monitor PC use among their staff, according to Masakazu Kobayashi, an associate professor at Tokyo's Institute of Information Security.

More here.

'Virtual University of Terror' Housed on Internet, Group Says

A Canadian Press article by Gregory Bonnell, via The Globe and Mail, reports that:

Senior federal cabinet ministers will be handed a "snapshot" today of how terrorists have dramatically increased their Internet presence during the past year to create a "virtual university of terrorism."

The more than 6,000 terror- and hate-related websites catalogued by the U.S.-based Simon Wiesenthal Center in its annual report represent a 20-per-cent increase over last year, Rabbi Abraham Cooper said.

More here.

Nanotech Product Recalled in Germany

Rick Weiss writes in The Washington Post:

Government officials in Germany have reported what appears to be the first health-related recall of a nanotechnology product, raising a potential public perception problem for the rapidly growing but still poorly understood field of science.

At least 77 people reported severe respiratory problems over a one-week period at the end of March -- including six who were hospitalized with pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs -- after using a "Magic Nano" bathroom cleansing product, according to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Berlin.

More here.

Defense Tech: Iraqi Army Personnel Retinal Scanning

Image source: Defense Tech

Via Defense Tech.

In Iraq, it's tough to sort out who's an ally, and who's Al Qaeda. So the Marines are giving Iraqi Army recruits the biometric once over.

According to Security Products magazine, the Marines are using the Biometric Automated Toolset System, which relies, in part, on iris recognition to provide "extremely accurate identification (false acceptance rate is 1 in 1.2 million), performing both un-tethered and tethered enrollment authentication."

This specific recognition device represents each individual iris as a small, 512-byte IrisCode and can function as a standalone device or in combination with custom network applications for identity recognition, security and tracking...

More here.

Canada: ATM Bandits Sentenced to Jail Term

A Canadian Press article, via The Globe and Mail, reports that:

A New Brunswick judge has sentenced a Montreal couple to several years of prison for ripping off banking machine customers in four provinces.

Steve Marino, 22, and Laura Rebecca Meyer-Diaz, 20, were in Moncton provincial court yesterday before Judge Sylvio Savoie.

After their guilty pleas to 801 fraud-related charges, the judge sentenced them to three years in prison, with credit given for the equivalent of 10 months already served in remand.

The pair attached equipment to ATMs to capture the information on bank cards, as well as a camera to record personal identification numbers.

More here.

User Friendly: Wikipedia, Britannica, Nature

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

Revenue Hunger: AT&T Calls for Chinese Telecom Deregulation

A Reuters newswire article, via CNN/Money, reports that:

The largest U.S. provider of landline and wireless services, AT&T Inc., urged China Thursday to stimulate competition and innovation by deregulating its telecommunications sector.

Rising global competition and rapidly developing Internet technology were compelling reasons for regulators to re-examine and update their policies, Forrest Miller, AT&T group president, told a group of industry executives.

More here.

Those Whacky Chinese Fashions: Keyboard Shoes!

Image source: TechEBlog

Via TechEBlog.

These keyboard shoes are currently on display at the "14th China International Clothing and Accessories Fair" in Beijing.

From the article: "The computer keyboard shoes displayed above have just won the top prize in the sports category at the 6th Hong Kong Footwear Design Contest."

ICANN Board Member Quits

Kieren McCarthy writes on The Register:

A director of internet-overseeing organisation ICANN has resigned from the Board, claiming he will be able to do more working from the outside.

Michael Palage was due to stay on the Board until June 2008 but decided to quit because he says he was unable to participate effectively thanks to conflicts of interest. A key member of ICANN since its inception, Palage is an IP lawyer and IT consultant and has represented a number of internet registrars since 1998. He currently acts as a consultant to big-player Afilias.

His advisory role for companies caused him to abstain on the controversial Board vote over the dotcom registry. And it has also seen he receive a number of threatening letters from right-wing Christians in the United States over the proposed .xxx domain because he had advised the company behind it in its original bid several years earlier.

More here.

Netcraft: April 2006 Web Server Survey

Image source: Netcraft

Via Netcraft.

There are now more than 80 million web sites on the Internet, as the April 2006 survey received responses from 80,655,992 sites, an increase of 3.1 million hostnames from March 2006. The web has doubled in size in the past three years, as the survey hit the 40 million mark in April 2003.

This month's survey brings one of the largest one-month swings in the history of the web server market, as Microsoft gains 4.7 percent share while Apache loses 5.9 percent. The shift is driven by changes at domain registrar Go Daddy, which has just migrated more than 3.5 million hostnames from Linux to Windows.

Go Daddy, which had been the world's largest Linux host, is now the world's largest Windows Server 2003 host, as measured by hostnames. The company said it will shift a total of 4.4 million hostnames to Windows Server 2003.

More here.

Gapingvoid: Love is Like a Butterfly

Via gapingvoid.com. Enjoy!

Singapore Attacked Over Political Blog Censorship

Via The BBC.

The Singapore government has been condemned for gagging political discussion on the web in the run up to the country's parliamentary elections.

The government has extended censorship laws to ban podcasts and videocasts that carry political content.

Websites and blogs are already under strict control and must be registered with the government.

Media watchdog Reporters without Borders said the ban would prevent democratic debate on the net.

More here.

Schneier: Why VoIP Needs Crypto

Bruce Schneier writes on Wired News:

We already have seen how clever criminals have become over the past several years at stealing account information and personal data. I can imagine them eavesdropping on attorneys, looking for information with which to blackmail people. I can imagine them eavesdropping on bankers, looking for inside information with which to make stock purchases. I can imagine them stealing account information, hijacking telephone calls, committing identity theft. On the business side, I can see them engaging in industrial espionage and stealing trade secrets. In short, I can imagine them doing all the things they could never have done with the traditional telephone network.

This is why encryption for VOIP is so important. VOIP calls are vulnerable to a variety of threats that traditional telephone calls are not. Encryption is one of the essential security technologies for computer data, and it will go a long way toward securing VOIP.

The last time this sort of thing came up, the U.S. government tried to sell us something called "key escrow." Basically, the government likes the idea of everyone using encryption, as long as it has a copy of the key.

More here.

AT&T Whistleblower Claims to Document Illegal NSA Surveillance

Declan McCullagh writes on the C|Net News Politics Blog:

Evidence provided by a former AT&T technician proves that the telecommunications company secretly and unlawfully opened its networks to government eavesdroppers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said Thursday.

Alert readers may remember that EFF sued AT&T in January, alleging it illegally cooperated with the National Security Agency's secret eavesdropping program. Then, in an odd twist last week, the Bush administration objected to EFF including some internal AT&T documents in court (the Feds claimed they might be classified).

Now EFF seems to have cleared that up and has filed them in court, although they're still under seal.

EFF claims that it has a sworn statement by Mark Klein, a retired AT&T telecommunications technician -- and several internal AT&T documents -- that show a "dragnet surveillance" has been put into place to facilitate the NSA's controversial surveillance scheme.

Alas, we likely won't know details until the judge decides to release them.

More here.

New Bill Would Clean Up Caller ID

Kevin Poulsen writes on Wired News:

Bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday in the House of Representatives seeks to outlaw the use of caller ID spoofing techniques "with the intent to deceive the person to whom the call is made."

The bill targets the mostly web-based spoofing services that allow users to make phone calls that appear to be coming from a phone number of the caller's choice. Site operators emphasize that their services are used by private investigators and law enforcement agencies, but spoofing is also popular with fraud artists and pranksters.

More here.

Microsoft to Buy Lionhead Studios

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

Microsoft Corp.'s video-game development arm said Thursday it is buying British game developer Lionhead Studios, creator of the "Fable" series for Microsoft's Xbox console.

The series has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, according to the company.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but under the agreement, Lionhead will develop games exclusively for the Xbox 360 console and platforms operating on Microsoft's Windows operating system.

More here.

Genius Alert: Teens Arrested After Posting Firebombing Video on MySpace

An AP newswire article, via USA Today, reports that:

Two teenage boys were arrested on charges of possessing "destructive devices" after a video allegedly showing the duo firebombing an empty airplane hangar was posted online at MySpace.com, a social networking site. Novato police said a tip led them to watch the video, which provided clues for identifying the hangar's location and the teens who were arrested Tuesday. In the clip, two boys each are seen setting off a homemade firebomb, said Novato Police Lt. Jim Laveroni.

The hangar used to be part of Hamilton Air Force Base, which closed in 1976, according to Novato Police Lt. Jim Laveroni. The building suffered damage that investigators described as "minimal."

More here.

Judge OKs Case Against Sex Blog Author

Jessica Cutler
Image source: Kyoko Hamada / The Washington Post

An AP newswire article, via CNN, reports that:

A judge on Wednesday allowed a lawsuit to proceed against Jessica Cutler, the former Senate aide who posted details of her sex life on the Internet.

The case brought by Sen. Mike DeWine's former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Robert Steinbuch, alleges that Cutler engaged in an invasion of his privacy in 2004 by publishing sexually explicit facts about a relationship with Steinbuch.

Cutler was fired from DeWine's staff after the Web log -- which identified her purported sex partners by initials -- created a public sensation.

More here.

6 April 1930: Happy Birthday, Twinkie!

00:01

Twinkies

Via Wikipedia.

The Twinkie was invented on April 6, 1930 by bakery manager James Dewar, making thrifty use of shortcake pans that were usually only used during the strawberry season. Twinkies originally contained a banana filling, but this was replaced with a vanilla filling during a banana shortage caused by the outbreak of World War II.

Though Continental Foods has never revealed how Twinkies are made, most people believe that they are baked, because the bottoms look brown. The Washington Post reported on April 15, 2005 that "the cakes are baked for 10 minutes, then the cream filling is injected through three holes in the top, which is browned from baking. The cake is flipped before packaging, so the rounded yellow bottom becomes the top." Hostess was the implied source of this information.

Twinkies are oblong in shape, approximately 4" x 1" (10 cm x 2.5 cm), and usually sold in packages of two. They have a shelf life of 25 days. Various urban legends have stated that Twinkies have shelf lives anywhere from several years up to one century in duration, but there is no evidence to support this. In the U.S., the Twinkie is commonly regarded as the quintessential junk food. Each Twinkie contains about 145 kilocalories (607 kilojoules). Five hundred million are produced each year.

More here.

Qualcomm Plans Chips for High-Speed 'World Phone'

Sinead Carew writes for Reuters:

Qualcomm Inc. expects to introduce chips by year-end for high-speed data phones that could work virtually anywhere in the world, making it easier for traveling executives to communicate overseas, its chief executive, Paul Jacobs, said on Wednesday.

Jacobs said Qualcomm is building phone chips that work on both EV-DO, a high-speed data technology used by U.S. operators Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp., and another technology known as W-CDMA, which is dominant in Europe.

More here.

Google Signs Two New Agents In China

Via ChinaTechNews.com.

Search engine giant Google has authorized two more Chinese companies to be its sales agent. The company now has seven authorized sales agents in China.

The two new agents are Hangzhou Wangtong Hulian Technology Company and Suzhou Huanyu Network Media Company. The former will be responsible for Google's service in the Hangzhou area and the latter will cover Suzhou and Wuxi.

The other five agents are Zhongqi Dongli, Xiamen Zhong Zi Yuan, Shanghai Hotsales, Guangdong Yidong Shi Dai and Beijing Zibolan, but only Zhongqi Dongli and Xiamen Zhongziyuan have been allowed to run business nationwide.

More here.

Free Tool Ferrets Out Mail Server Problems

Image source: eMail Battles

Via eMail Battles.

Email service can even be a challenge for single-server shops. All too often, less experienced administrators either call their consultant, switch suppliers, or tell their users, "That's the way it is. Get used to it."

That's why the builder of email firewall trimMail Inbox (our sponsor) produced Mail Server Profiler, its free web-based tool.

Simply type in the domain name you want to check. Mail Server Profiler tracks down all its mail servers and checks their SMTP ports to tell you which servers are listening for mail, and which servers are not.

Then Mail Server Profiler produces a profile of your mail server setup, along with insights into possible sources of any mail delivery problems.

More here.

'Where's My Refund?' Users Flock to Find Out

Matthew Weigelt writes on FCW.com:

More taxpayers than ever head to the Web to check on their federal income tax refunds, the Internal Revenue Service announced today.

Taxpayers have submitted more than 21 million requests this year at “Where’s My Refund?" on IRS.gov, marking more than 20 percent in growth compared with the same period last year, the agency said.

More here.

San Francisco Picks Companies for Wi-Fi

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

Google Inc.'s bid to blanket San Francisco with a free wireless Internet service cleared a major hurdle Wednesday when a city panel identified the search leader and EarthLink Inc. as the best candidates for the ambitious project.

The recommendation, completing a six-week review, allows the city to begin negotiations with Google and EarthLink, which decided to team together earlier this year after initially bidding against each other. The companies will pay to build the entire network, which is expected to cost at least $15 million.

EarthLink envisions charging roughly $20 per month for the ability to surf the Web at speeds four to five times faster than Google's free service, expected to be financed with a heavy dose of ads.

More here.

Thales to Buy Alcatel Satellite and Security Units

James Kanter writes in The Internetional Herald Tribune:

In a move that keeps French military technologies in French hands, the defense electronics company Thales on Wednesday announced plans to purchase satellite and security businesses from Alcatel for a mix of cash and shares worth about €1.7 billion.

Alcatel, whose main business is telecommunications equipment, is selling the units for the equivalent of $2 billion after agreeing to merge with Lucent, its U.S. rival. Lucent already has taken separate steps to ensure that classified research it conducts at its Bell Labs center is shielded from foreign eyes following similar concerns about security in the United States.

More here.

Liberty Global Sells Swedish Cable Unit

A Bloomberg News article, via The Internetional Herlad Tribune, reports that:

Liberty Global, the U.S. company that operates cable television systems around the world, said Wednesday that it would sell its Swedish business for $427 million to a group of private-equity firms, two weeks after announcing a retreat from France.

The business, UPC Sverige, will be acquired by Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners, Liberty Global said. These U.S. private-equity firms already own the Swedish cable TV company Com Hem, which they bought in December.

Liberty Global last month agreed to sell its French assets to the private equity companies Altice and Cinven for €1.25 billion, or $1.5 billion. The transactions in France and Sweden, together with the sale in December of its Norwegian business, will net the company gross proceeds of $2.5 billion, Liberty Global said.

More here.

TSA Privacy Policy Slammed by EPIC

Judy Welles writes on FCW.com:

The Transportation Security Administration is denying airline passengers erroneously detained by an airport screening system any meaningful redress, a critic of the agency said today at the second public workshop held by the Homeland Security Department’s Privacy Office today.

David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, cited reports of people who have been misidentified and detained through the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) II and Secure Flight screening processes.

DHS, through TSA, is “conducting background checks on every citizen before boarding flights, and many have encountered problems," Sobel said.

More here.

Swisscom Takes Steps Toward Privatization (Again)

A Reuters newswire article, via The International Herald Tribune, reports that:

Switzerland took its first step Wednesday in a plan to privatize Swisscom, the former telecommuniations monopoly that has been frustrated by the government in its efforts at foreign expansion.

The country's federal council formally proposed a legal change to the law which, if approved by Parliament and a probable public referendum, would allow the government to sell its 62.45 percent stake, which at current market prices would be worth about 15 billion Swiss francs, or $11.65 billion.

More here.

Africa's Zamtel to Lay International Cable

Michael Malakata writes on InfoWorld:

After completing a feasibility study, Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel) this week said it will be ready by the end of next year to start laying new fiber-optic lines to connect to existing transcontinental cables.

Zamtel's fiber-optic network will be connected to the cable ship Nexus (CS Nexus) intercontinental cable that runs under the Indian Ocean from South Africa to Sudan. The CS Nexus undersea cable connects Africa to Europe and Asia, which are Zambia's most active communication destinations.

Zamtel's new fiber-optic network is expected to be operational by the second quarter of 2007.

More here.

Geeks Rule: Gateway to Pay Engineer to Settle Case

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

Computer seller Gateway Inc. cut short a patent infringement trial by agreeing to pay an undisclosed sum to an engineer who came up with a fix for a problem with floppy disk controllers.

Terms of the settlement, reached Tuesday after the first day of trial, were undisclosed.

More here.

Network Neutrality Bid Fails in Committee

Andrew Orlowski writes on The Register:

A legislative bid to prevent US network operators from introducing discriminatory pricing for their own services has been defeated at the sub-committee phase in the lower house.

The proposed legislation, an amendment to the Telecommunications Act, would have outlawed an ISP from "offering varied service plans to users at defined levels of bandwidth and different prices". It was voted down by the House's Energy and Commerce Committee's telecom subcommittee.

More here.

MLB.com Hands Baseball to Microsoft Media Player

Ashlee Vance writes on The Register:

America's pastime has become a Microsoft-only affair with Major League Baseball's (MLB) online arm scrapping support for Real media during the 2006 season.

For years, MLB Advanced Media delivered audio and video streams of baseball games to fans via both Windows and Real media. No more. Due to what it calls a lack of demand, the media company has cancelled Real support - a huge blow to open media fans and Apple users in particular.

More here.

New IE Flaw Allows Address Bar Spoofing

Frank Washkuch writes on SC Magazine Online:

Another Internet Explorer (IE) flaw has been found, one that allows phishers and other malicious users to spoof an address bar when creating a malicious site.

The vulnerability is caused by a condition in the loading of Macromedia Flash Format (.swf) files in browser windows. The flaw can then be exploited to show what appears to be a legitimate address bar, according to vulnerability monitoring firm Secunia.

The firm also provided a test for home users to see if their browsers have been affected by this flaw.

More here.

Adobe Signs First Flash Deal For Mobile Phones

Michael Kahn writes for Reuters:

Adobe Systems Inc. unveiled a deal on Wednesday with Verizon Wireless, the second largest U.S. wireless provider, to build Flash animation software into Verizon mobile phones.

Adobe, which did not disclose financial details or potential launch dates, said the agreement will make Verizon the first wireless operator in the United States to offer mobile phones with built-in Flash technology.

More here.

Texas AG Joins Call For IRS To Protect Private Tax Return Information

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott

Via the Office of The Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has joined 46 other state attorneys general in calling for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to limit the marketing of taxpayers' private tax return information by tax preparers.

Abbott signed onto a letter submitted to the IRS by the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) expressing the group's concerns about the ramifications of proposed IRS regulations that broaden disclosure rules but impose few obligations on the recipients of such disclosed information to protect the security of the data.

More here.

D-Link Preps First 802.11n Products

Nate Mook writes on BetaNews:

D-Link on Wednesday said it planned to deliver its first 802.11n capable wireless devices by the end of April, heralding the arrival of the next-generation wireless standard. Although 802.11n has not yet been finalized, hardware manufacturers are using draft specifications with ratification expected soon.

802.11n promises wireless speeds of up to 100Mbit per second, with the potential for much higher throughput in future updates. Using a technology called MIMO, or multiple-in, multiple out, an 802.11n device could have multiple antennas that handle more than one data stream at a time, thus speeding the transfer of data tremendously.

More here.

Briton Held as Terror Suspect Over 'London Calling'

A Reuters newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said on Wednesday.

Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.

The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash’s 1979 anthem “London Calling,” which features the lyrics “Now war is declared -- and battle come down” while other lines warn of a “meltdown expected.”

More here.

Cisco Releases Two Security Advisories

Via Cisco.

Cisco Optical Networking System 15000 Series and Cisco Transport Controller Vulnerabilities

Multiple vulnerabilities exist in the Cisco Optical Networking System (ONS) 15310 Multi-service Provisioning Platforms (MSPP), ONS 15327 MSPP, ONS 15454 MSPP, ONS 15454 Multi-service Transport Platform (MSTP) and the ONS 15600 MSPP. These vulnerabilities will affect Optical nodes that have the Common Control Cards connected to a Data Communications Network (DCN) and are enabled for Internet Protocol Version 4 (IP). Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities will result in a denial of service (DoS) of the Common Control Cards.

A separate vulnerability exists within the Cisco Transport Controller (CTC) applet launcher which may allow execution of arbitrary code on the CTC workstation. This software is downloaded from the Common Control Cards when a management connection is made to the Optical node.

Cisco 11500 Content Services Switch HTTP Request Vulnerability

Cisco CSS 11500 Series Content Services Switches configured for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) compression are vulnerable to a Denial of Service (DoS) attack when processing valid, but obsolete, or specially crafted HTTP request.

Cisco has made free software available to address this vulnerability for affected customers. The workaround is to disable HTTP compression.

McAfee Acquires SiteAdvisor

Dawn Kawamoto writes on C|Net News:

Security company McAfee has acquired SiteAdvisor in a move to fortify defenses for people before they browse potentially malicious Web sites.

Boston-based SiteAdvisor informs people conducting Web searches whether their results include sites potentially associated with spyware, adware, spam and browser attacks. The safety ratings are displayed next to the search results with red, yellow or green icons.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

More here.

The Best Web 2.0 Gag Yet: Socializr.net

Props, Valleywag.

Kaspersky: Virus Writers at War

Image source: www.gapingvoid.com

John Leyden writes on The Register:

The confrontation between virus writers and the anti-virus industry is escalating, with malware authors also going after fellow VXers.

The dog eat dog atmosphere has resulted in cybercriminals stepping up their attacks against the security industry and government organisations, according to a report Kaspersky Labs published this week. The report, Malware Evolution 2005, Part II, puts the ramp up in the cyberhooligan activity down to greed. VXers are no longer satisfied with the profits to be made from infecting consumers, so they've stepped up their activity and adopted more aggressive tactics in a bid to increase the effectiveness of malware attacks.

According to Kaspersky, cybercriminals are tracking the activity of the anti-virus industry as closely as the anti-virus industry is tracking malware authors. For example, they use multi anti-virus scanners to test new modifications of existing malicious programs against vendors' anti-virus databases prior to their release.

More here.

Wi-Fi Cell Phone Battle Looms

Via Red Herring.

Wireless phone companies, worried their customers may start using VoIP services like Skype as Wi-Fi-enabled phones become commonplace, are lining up behind an alternate technology called UMA.

UMA, short for Unlicensed Mobile Access, would allow calls to move seamlessly from the GSM (global system for mobile communications) cellular network to Wi-Fi networks. More important to the cell companies, it would let the operators retain control over the call and charge the customer for the time.

With Skype and some other VoIP services, customers would be able to call for free once their phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network. With some U.S. cities now proposing free citywide Wi-Fi services, that could mean billions in lost revenue for the wireless firms.

More here.

Pennsylvania Hospitals to Share Patient Data

This sounds like it might have the potential for a fairly severe privacy data breach if not implemented and secured properly.

A ZD Internet article by M.L. Baker, via eWeek, reports that:

Community hospitals and family physicians in rural and suburban Pennsylvania have taken up a plan to make sure a patient's general practitioner knows what treatment the patient received in the hospital, and vice versa.

Medical errors often occur during handoffs, when a patient moves from one site of care to another but patient information does not. The lost information also costs time and money because health care providers schedule unnecessary and expensive tests. As a result, this week, Geisinger Health Systems announced that it has contracted with enterprise content management company Vignette to create a portal that lets doctors at one site see details of care at another site.

Geisinger and two other unaffiliated community hospitals have agreed to share information as part of the Geisinger RHIO (regional health information organization), which covers more than 3 million patients. Up to eight other health systems are slated to join the RHIO over the next three years.

More here.

Post Mortem Tech: Tombstones With LCD Displays

Image source: übergizmo.com

Via übergizmo.com.

It is only a matter of time before death becomes digitized - the tombstone, that is.

This digital tombstone comes with a weather-proof LCD screen that plays a short clip of the deceased or the memorial service when its infra red sensor is tripped by a mourner. Volume levels will be a sensitive issue, unless the manufacturer decides to include a headset at each tomb.

User Friendly: Vista Capable

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

Defense Tech: It's All Info Ops, All The Time

Hampton Stevens writes on Defense Tech:

The Defense Department has issued a new publication outlining joint doctrine on the use of "information operations," according to Secrecy News. Which might make you think the Pentagon has some new rules for keeping computers safe. But Information operations is used for a wide range of military operations designed "to influence, disrupt, corrupt, or usurp adversarial human and automated decision making while protecting our own," according to the document, officially known as Joint Publication 3-13.

The doctrine document follows the 2003 publication of a DOD "Information Operations Roadmap", which outlined plans for developing capabilities needed to achieve information dominance. Microwave blasts, propaganda campaigns, radio jams, and hack attacks are all part of the plan. In fact, the range of tactics that are part of "information operations" is so wide that the term risks confusing the uninitiated. So here’s a primer.

More here.

Over-The-Top Tech: The $20,000 MP3 Player

Image source: übergizmo.com

Via übergizmo.com.

Russian-Canadian billionaire Alex Shnaider has placed an order with TrekStor to develop the world's most expensive MP3 player. Encrusted with $20,000 worth of diamonds (63 in total) and cast in 750 gold, Alex hit on the brilliant idea of refurbishing the award-winning i.Beat organix MP3 player while negotiating sponsorship terms with the TrekStor CEO.

He subsequently placed this unique order on the spot. Talk about maxing out on bling, but when you are a billionaire, a mere 20 grand is like a drop in the ocean. Alex plans to auction the MP3 player for a charitable cause though. Anyone up to make a bid?

Apple Releases Software to Let Macs Run Windows

A Reuters newswire article, via The Washington Post, reports that:

Apple Computer Inc. on Wednesday rolled out a software patch that enables its Intel-based Macintosh computers to install and run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system.

Apple said that the new software, called "Boot Camp" is available as a download beginning today.

More here.

Snakes on a Blog!

Melissa P. McNamara writes on CBS News Blogophile:

If you haven't heard of the movie "Snakes on a Plane," starring Samuel L. Jackson, you haven't been reading blogs. The movie won't be released until the summer, but the early buzz online is hard to miss.

Jackson stars as FBI agent Nelville Flynn, who is accompanying a key mob trial witness on a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles. And, well, there are snakes on the plane. The storyline is rather simple, but perhaps that’s the brilliance of it, bloggers say.

Samuel L. Jackson, and the mere notion of snakes on a plane have burst the movie through the blogosphere.

In fact, the movie has generated so much attention from bloggers that New Line Cinema went back for five more days of shooting months after it was complete to bring the movie from a PG-13 rating to an R rating to meet fans’ expectations. Movie producers were able to capitalize on its built-in audience, months before it even had a finished product.

More here.

Microsoft to Beef Up Its Investment in DRM for Mobile

John Blau writes on InfoWorld:

With ever more songs, pictures, and video clips being sent over the airwaves to mobile phones, Microsoft plans to beef up its investment in DRM (digital rights management) technologies to help protect copyright material, the company said Wednesday on the opening day of CTIA Wireless 2006 in Las Vegas.

Microsoft provided no financial details, saying only that the investments would be "significant." It plans to extend its Windows Media Digital Rights Management software to support new types of wireless services, it said.

More here.

Gapingvoid: 34, Broke, and Hating Your Job?

Via gapingvoid.com. Enjoy!

Listen Up, Sudoko Fans: Cyber Criminals Count on Sudoku to Infect Victim PCs

William Eazel writes on SC Magazine Online:

Security experts yesterday warned that a growing number of maliciously coded web pages are downloading spyware programs onto computers without the consent of the sites' visitors.

These web pages are designed by cyber criminals to exploit different software vulnerabilities to automatically install malware on systems, Panda Software warned. The majority of the websites try to tempt users by offering pornographic or illegal content, but some "particularly dangerous" new sites have begun offering sudoku puzzles as a social engineering hook to attract unwitting victims.

Typically the application operates perfectly, allowing users to play the sudoku game. However, without the users knowledge, it downloads a spyware, YazzleSudoku, every time the user opens the application. Once YazzleSudoku is installed on a computer, it creates several Windows registry entries to ensure that it remains active. Similarly, it generates a series of files it needs to operate, with names such as RL_SudokuInstaller.rar.lnk, or Yazzle Sudoku. Then, YazzleSudoku displays advertising messages on the screens of compromised computers.

It is important to note that when starting to play the game, users are warned that spyware will be installed. If the user agrees, the spyware will be installed on the computer. However, if users do not agree, they will not be able to use the sudoku program.

More here.

RIAA Suggests MIT Student Drop Out Of School To Pay Fine

Mike Masnick writes over on techdirt.com:

The RIAA has made quite the business out of shaking down folks they accuse of uploading music. This has been covered at length before, but they basically send a "settlement offer" with each lawsuit. The offer says (more or less) "pay $3500 and this goes away." They also make it clear that just taking the case to court will likely cost more than $3500 in legal fees, suggesting it's not even worth fighting it -- which in some parts of the world sounds very much like extortion. Plenty of people have done the math and suggested that this little business of suing their biggest fans has turned into a nice little profit center for the industry.

Digg is pointing to the case of one woman, a student at MIT, who is trying to talk to the RIAA after being offered just such a settlement. When she points out that she's a poor college student, the RIAA rep kindly suggests that perhaps dropping out of school will make it easier to pay off the fine. Now, from the story, it's unclear whether or not the student is guilty of uploading files. If she did it, then it's certainly her responsibility to face whatever punishment comes her way. However, on the spectrum of punishment fitting the crime, does it seem reasonable to ask a student to give up her college education for the sake of paying off the recording industry for the "crime" of helping others find music they might like?

More here.

Australia: NSW Police Secret Password Disclosure Blunder

The police email list with passwords - which we have digitally obscured - and, inset, counter terrorism commander Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Jenkins.
Image source: Sydney Morning Herald

Jano Gibson writes in The Sydney Morning Herald:

A NSW Police blunder has led to a database of email passwords - including those of the anti-terrorism commander and hundreds of journalists - published on the internet.

The names, email addresses and passwords of as many as 800 people who signed up to receive NSW Police media releases are listed on the database.

Among the exposed passwords is that of Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Jenkins, the man responsible for the state's Counter Terrorist Co-ordination Command unit.

This morning, smh.com.au alerted Mr Jenkins to the fact that his password had been compromised.

He said he had no idea it was available on the internet.

(Thanks, Kane!) More here.

China: Shanghai Telecom Wants VoIP Calls Blocked

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

A U.S. maker of network management systems said Wednesday it had received an order from Shanghai Telecom Co. for a system that can detect and block telephone calls placed over the Internet.

Shanghai Telecom, which has 6.2 million landlines, plans to use Narus Inc.'s system to improve its ability to block "unauthorized" Internet calls that connect to its phone system, bypassing its toll structure.

More here.

University of Texas Professor's Population Speeches Unnerve Some

University of Texas at Austin Professor Eric Pianka
Image source: Laura Skelding / Austin American Statesman

I love Austin. Ebola for everyone!

Laura Heinauer writes in The Austin American-Statesman:

University of Texas professor Eric Pianka's enemies say he advocates wiping out 90 percent of the population and that his seemingly giddy obsession with death and disease coupled with power over young minds is dangerous and disturbing.

His supporters say while his rhetoric may be shocking at times, he's just trying to get people to think about the consequences of uncontrolled population growth.

"I've found that it takes courage to tell people what they don't want to know," Pianka, 67, said Tuesday, two days after a newspaper story in Seguin's Gazette-Enterprise ignited a firestorm that has resulted in e-mail threats on Pianka's life.

The controversy surrounds comments made during two recent speeches in which Pianka discussed the need for population control and the impending disease pandemic that might well just take care of it. Some heard the comments as simply a warning. To others, however, it sounded like Pianka was advocating the use of deadly viruses to kill off millions of people.

Pianka, who calls the latter interpretation nonsense, says the whole thing has blown out of proportion. Many, however, seem to be taking his critics seriously. Pianka said he is scheduled to meet with FBI officials today.

More here.

Microsoft Wins Big Order for Cellphone Software

A Bloomberg News article, via The New York Times, reports that:

Microsoft has won its biggest contract ever for mobile phone software, an order from the United States Census Bureau for 500,000 handsets.

Microsoft plans to unveil the deal as early as today, Scott Horn, a general manager for the company, said in an interview. Microsoft expects to increase its mobile unit's sales to $1 billion in one to three years, from $337 million last year, and break the dominance of the Research In Motion BlackBerry wireless e-mail device.

More here.

U.S. Homeland Security Official Arrested in Online Sex Sting

Deputy Press Secretary Brian J. Doyle
of the Department of Homeland Security.
Image source: MSNBC

An AP newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

The deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday for using the Internet to seduce what he thought was a teenage girl, authorities said.

Brian J. Doyle, 55, of Silver Spring, Md., was arrested on seven charges of use of a computer to seduce a child and 16 counts of transmission of harmful material to a minor. The charges were issued out of Polk County, Fla.

Doyle had a sexually explicit conversation with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl whose profile he saw on the Internet on March 14, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

More here.

GAO: Agencies Not Protecting Privacy Rights

Robert O'Harrow Jr. writes in The Washington Post:

Government agencies that use private information services for law enforcement, counterterrorism and other investigations often do not follow federal rules to protect Americans' privacy, according to a report yesterday by the Government Accountability Office.

The Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and two other agencies examined by the GAO spent about $30 million last year on companies that maintain billions of electronic files about adults' current and past addresses, family members and associates, buying habits, personal finances, listed and unlisted phone numbers and much more.

But those agencies often do not limit the collection and use of information about law-abiding citizens, as required by the Privacy Act of 1974 and other laws. The agencies also don't ensure the accuracy of the information they are buying, according to the GAO report.

More here.

5 April 1588: Happy Birthday, Thomas Hobbes

00:01

Painting of Thomas Hobbes from The National Portrait Gallery, London.
Image source: Wikipedia

Via Wikipedia.

Thomas Hobbes (April 5, 1588–December 4, 1679) was an English philosopher, whose famous 1651 book Leviathan set the agenda for nearly all subsequent Western political philosophy.

Although Hobbes is today best remembered for his work on political philosophy, he contributed to a diverse array of fields, including history, geometry, ethics, general philosophy and what would now be called political science. Additionally, Hobbes's account of human nature as self-interested cooperation has proved to be an enduring theory in the field of philosophical anthropology.

In Leviathan, Hobbes set out his doctrine of the foundation of societies and legitimate governments. In the natural condition of mankind, while some men may be stronger or more intelligent than others, none is so strong and smart as to be beyond a fear of violent death. When threatened with death, man in his natural state cannot help but defend himself in any way possible.

Self-defense against violent death is Hobbes's highest human necessity, and rights are borne of necessity. In the state of nature, then, each of us has a right to everything in the world. Due to the scarcity of things in the world, there is a constant, and rights-based, "war of all against all" (bellum omnium contra omnes). Life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" (xiii).

But war isn't in man's best interest. According to Hobbes, man has a self-interested and materialistic desire to end war — "the passions that incline men to peace are fear of death, desire of such things as are necessary to commodious living, and a hope by their industry to obtain them" (xiii, 14). He forms peaceful societies by entering into a social contract.

Much more here.

Satire: Help Lobby God on Behalf of Indicted Ethics Posterchild Tom DeLay

Via WhiteHouse.org.

Our Thomas, who art in Congress,
Hallowed be thy ethics.
Thine indictment come.
Thy will undone.
By some bitter pinko in Texas.
Give us this day our daily graft.
And bequeath us our gerrymanders,
As we bequeath squat to poor, colored trash.
And lead us not into taxation,
But deliver us from mercy.
For thine is the vitriol,
And the avarice,
And the goose step.
For ever and ever.
Amen.

Down Under: Telcos Consider Acquisition Status of AAPT, Telecom New Zealand

Michael Sainsbury writes on Australian IT:

Telecom New Zealand has received indicative bids for its troubled Australian business, AAPT, amid increasing market speculation that the Kiwi telco may itself be a takeover target.

Bids for AAPT closed last Friday, after TNZ chief financial officer Marko Bogoievski visited Australia last week to hear final pitches of interested buyers.

Lining up for the company are Optus, regional telco Soul, and a consortium of listed telcos Powertel and Commander with the backing of Powertel's parent, Hong Kong private equity group TVG.

Sources said the TVG consortium was emerging as a strong consolidation play with a cash and shares bid that would probably see TNZ left with a stake in a locally listed merged group.

More here.

Purdue Students Win Rube Goldberg Contest

Drew Wischer, left, and Shawn Jordan of Purdue celebrate a successful run of their machine.
Image source: USA Today / Dave Umberger / Purdue News Service

An AP newswire article, via USA Today, reports that:

Purdue University students won the 18th national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on Saturday by proving disposing of sheets of paper isn't always simple.

Students from the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers devised the most arbitrarily complex method of individually cutting or shredding five sheets of paper.

The team, which gave Purdue its fourth straight national title in the event, used 215 steps to accomplish this year's design task — nearly 11 times the 20 steps required in the event.

More here.

Trojan-Powered Scam Network Dismantled

John Leyden writes on The Register:

Banks, telecos, hotels, airlines and international betting services were among those affected by the creation and sale of Briz Trojans, a malware-creation-for-hire scam recently uncovered by security researchers.

Analysis of the data stolen by one of the customised Trojans on sale to cybercrooks through the computer underground by Spanish anti-virus firm Panda Software includes financial data that could damage affected companies. Panda is contacting affected firms to make sure they protect themselves and their clients.

More here.

Net Neutrality: U.S. Lawmakers Eye Fines for Internet 'Discrimination'

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

U.S. lawmakers plan to propose fines of up to $500,000 for violating regulatory principles aimed at preserving consumers' ability to freely surf the Internet, a senior House of Representatives Republican said on Tuesday.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Internet and telecommunications will consider legislation on Wednesday that would authorize the Federal Communications Commission to enforce its principles on Internet network neutrality.

Those principles call on Internet service providers to permit consumers unfettered Internet access and allow them to run any Internet-based applications. The bill would also make it easier for telephone companies to get into the subscription television business.

More here.

Netflix Files Patent Infringement Suit Aginst Blockbuster

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

Online DVD rental service Netflix Inc. on Tuesday accused Blockbuster Inc. of illegally copying its ideas in a patent infringement lawsuit challenging the video store chain's recent Internet expansion.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, focuses largely on the online wish lists that prioritize the DVD desires of about 5.4 million people who subscribe to either Netflix or Blockbuster's Internet service.

Netflix also believes its patents cover perhaps its most popular feature — the option of renting a DVD for an unlimited time without incurring late fees.

More here.

Cisco Phases Out 2600 Series Routers

Phil Hochmuth writes on NetworkWorld:

Cisco is retiring its 2600 series multi-service routers, one of the most widely-deployed WAN products for enterprise branches and mid-size businesses.

Cisco's end-of-life and end-of-sale notice for the 2600 series, posted last week, says the company will stop selling 2600 series on March 27, 2007. However, support for the platform will be phased out slowly, with service and support to end on March 25, 2012.

More here.

IANA Contract Extended by Six Months

Bret Fausett writes on his Internet Printing Press blog:

The U.S. Government has extended [.pdf] the current phase of ICANN's IANA contract for six more months. Importantly, this is not a renewal of the contract, simply an extension of the existing contract.

The extension ends on September 30, 2006, the same date that ICANN's MOU with the United States expires.

New NSF Research Grants Aim to Plug Security Holes in VoIP

Via PhysOrg.com.

The National Science Foundation has issed four awards totaling $600,000 to the University of North Texas to lead a multi-university collaboration to develop a geographically distributed, secure test bed to analyze vulnerabilities in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)--an increasingly popular technology that turns audio signals into digital data that can be transmitted over the Internet.

The three-year project will investigate voice spam prevention (VoIP phone systems can be spammed like email), attacks on networks and Internet resources that render them unavailable (denial-of-service), quality of service, and 911 service dependability. The unique test bed will also be used to discover security holes arising from operating VoIP with conventional phone networks.

More here.

Gapingvoid: The Best Rise to The Top

Via gapingvoid.com. Enjoy!

Online Ads Offer Rooms in Return for Sex

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

In Atlanta, an online ad offers a room in exchange for "sex and light office duty." In Los Angeles, a one-bedroom pool house is free "to a girl that is skilled and willing." And in New York City, a $700-a-month room is available at a discount to a fit female willing to provide sex.

On the widely used Web site Craigslist.org, some landlords and apartment dwellers looking for roommates are offering to accept sex in lieu of rent.

"They have to be attractive. I don't let just anybody come into my house," said Mike, a man who answered the phone at the New York City listing but declined to give his last name — and refused to say whether he has, in fact, collected the rent under the sheets.

The offering of shelter for sex is older than, well, real estate itself.

More here.

Firefox Moves Past 10 Percent Browser Share

Nate Mook writes on BetaNews:

Web analytics firm Net Applications announced Monday that the open source Firefox browser has finally passed 10 percent market share, according to the firm's statistics for March. The 10.05 percent usage was up from 9.75 percent in February. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still holds a commanding lead with 84.7 percent of the market, Net Applications said.

However, according to another analytics firm, Firefox had already surpassed 10 percent market share last November. OneStat.com reported at the time that Mozilla browsers had reached 11.51 percent usage globally based on a sample of two million users from 100 companies.

More here.

Austin Ranks 20th on Gas Price 'Crisis Preparedness'

Remember: You can always keep track of gas prices around town at AustinGasPrices.com.

Via The Austin Business Journal.

Austin is the highest ranked major city in Texas listed on a new study that calculates how it would fare in the face of exorbitant gas prices.

The study, from SustainLane.com, analyzed the country's 50 largest cities and how they well they would maintain economic vitality and quality of life if gas prices spiked.

Austin ranks No. 20. Houston took the No. 25 spot while Dallas ranked No. 32 and San Antonio came it at No. 37.

New York City took the top spot while Oklahoma City came in last.

Of all the factors considered in the ranking, mobility is most important.

More here.

Dobson Cellular Expands in Alaska with $2M in New Spectrum

Via RCR Wireless News:

Dobson Cellular Systems Inc. announced it purchased 25 megahertz of spectrum in the 850 MHz band in Kodiak and Nome, Alaska, for $2 million. The carrier’s stock was up slightly on the news to around $8 per share.

Dobson said it bought the assets in Kodiak from New Horizons Telecom Inc. and Kodiak Electric Association Inc., and the assets in Nome from Sitnasuak Native Corp. and SNC Telecommunications Inc.

More here.

Network Solutions Glitch Hits Customers

John Leyden writes on The Register:

Network Solutions' website and some of its DNS services were knocked out for around two hours on Tuesday, 4 April because of an outage involving its co-location provider, Savvis. The exact cause of the outage between 07:56 EST and 10:02 EST remains unclear.

Services have largely been restored, and Network Solutions apoligised for any inconvenience caused. The domain registrar is due to go over events with Savvis in a post-mortem designed to make lessons away from the incident, it said.

More here.

Real-Life Humor: WWW Dodgeball Invitational

Via Valleywag.

Sadly, it's real.

Google, Flavorpill, AOL, Root.net, The Happy Corp, and MSN will compete in a two-hour dodgeball tourney in New York City this weekend. It will not be pretty (but if anyone sends pictures, I'll put them up).

Apple Sells Red Hot Chili Peppers Tickets on iTunes

A MacCentral article by Jim Dalrymple, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Apple and Warner Bros. announced on Tuesday announced pre-orders for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new double-album Stadium Arcadium. What may be more significant is a deal Apple, the band and Ticketmaster have put together to sell concert tickets for the bands U.S. tour.

Customers can pre-order a copy of the band’s new album for $19.90 to be downloaded on May 9 when it is released. Fans that pre-order the double album will receive a download of the new single, “Dani California” immediately at the time of the pre-order.

More here.

Phishers Busted by German Police

René Millman writes on SC Magazine Online:

Seven men, aged between 21 and 47 years old, were arrested in connection with a plot to steal from the bank accounts of thousands of internet users.

The BKA (Germany's federal crime office) said it stopped the German/Lithuanian gang as its members were just about to send out millions of phishing emails with trojans designed to steal passwords and TANs (single-use transaction numbers) from online bank account holders.

Police officers, who have been investigating the case since last December, searched six apartments in Frankfurt, Wetzlar, Gießen, Stauffenberg, Lich and Allendorf for evidence. According to the BKA, the gang opened several bank accounts using fake names and addresses and planned to transfer stolen money to Eastern Europe.

More here.

SPIT: Spam over Internet Telephony

Via Red Herring.

As more businesses switch over to cheaper VoIP systems for their phone networks, they’ll have to contend with a growing nuisance—SPIT, or Spam over Internet Telephony.

If the phone is ringing off the hook, it may not be customers calling, but recorded ads for Viagra and printer ink.

More here.

ICANN Faces Pressure From Friends and Foes

Michael Geist writes:

My latest Law Bytes column highlights the growing frustration with ICANN's accountability and transparency. The column highlights the many policy issues associated with Internet governance and notes that over the past month even ICANN's most ardent supporters have begun to express doubts about the organization' s lack of transparency and accountability.

Last week, U.S. Congressman Rick Boucher called for a Congressional investigation into ICANN and its recent decision to settle litigation with VeriSign, which manages the lucrative dot-com registry. The settlement, which awards VeriSign near-permanent control over the dot-com domain, has faced sharp criticism from across the Internet governance community.

More here.

Toon: We're Toast

Click for larger image.

Point of No Return? Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible

Ryan Naraine writes on eWeek:

In a rare discussion on the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall malware-infested operating systems.

"When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit," Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft, said in a presentation at the InfoSec World conference here.

More here.

Microsoft Losing Security Cred: Unofficial 0-Day Patches Gain Corporate Support

John Leyden writes on The Register:

Organisations are deploying unofficial patches in the absence of officially sanctioned security fixes from vendors, a new survey suggests.

Around one in eight (13 per cent) customers quizzed by security vendor PatchLink deployed an unofficial third party patch when the zero-day Microsoft WMF (Windows Meta File) exploit was discovered in January.

Three quarters of the 300 IT managers and network administrators worldwide questioned believe that patch cycles, like Microsoft's patch Tuesday, have improved their overall security patch and vulnerability processes. Forty-two per cent quantified the improvement as reducing the time they spent on patching, while 18 per cent reckon they've been able to reduce the number of employees they assign to patching thanks to greater certainty in the timing of patch releases.

More here.

N.Y. AG Spitzer Sues 'Spyware' Company Over Pop-Up Ads

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

New York's attorney general sued another Internet pop-up advertising company Tuesday, accusing it of secretly installing malicious programs on personal computers and sending ads through "spyware" that is already installed.

Eliot Spitzer said Direct Revenue LLC has installed millions of pop-up ad programs that also monitor the Internet activity of users. He asked a state court to stop the practice.

"These applications are deceptive and unfair to consumers, bad for businesses that rely on efficient networks to do their jobs, and bad for online retailers that need consumers to trust and enjoy their online experience," Spitzer said. "We will continue to side with consumers in their fight for control of their desktops."

More here.

Gratuitous Robot Tech: Dawn of the Android

Image source: übergizmo.com

Via übergizmo.com.

Are we getting closer to the day where Data from Star Trek becomes a norm? Not really, but the latest android generation from Osaka University, dubbed the ReplieeQ2, is realistic enough to warrant a second look.

It might be primitive in many ways, but who knows what the future holds? After all computers of yore were larger than a studio apartment a few decades ago, and look at where we are today.

Apple Attempts to Silence Bloggers Again

Nick Farrell writes on The Inquirer:

Cult entertainment gearmaker Apple will be back in court on April 20 in a bid to silence a group of bloggers who insisted on straying from its marketing program.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of PowerPage publisher, Jason O'Grady, is to appeal a decision by the court in favour of Apple.

Apple had demanded that O’Grady reveal who his deep throat was within the Cappuccino outfit and hand over emails and unpublished materials.

More here.

Lucent Takes Legal Action Against Microsoft Over Xbox 360

Via The Inquirer.

Networking giant Lucent is suing Microsoft alleging it breaches a patent it holds.

The patent, 5,227,878, was issued to Lucent on July 13th 1993 and called "Adaptive Coding and Decoding of Frames and Fields of Video".

It's not the first time Lucent and Microsoft have crossed swords on patents, nor indeed this one. An action started two years ago and in August 2005, the judge presiding in that case granted a summary judgement of invalidity because of a typo in the patent. That forced Lucent to get a certificate from the US patent office to correct the typo, which was issued at the end of October last year.

More here.

Amazon.com Jumps the Gun on NCAA Winner

An AP newswire article, via The Globe and Mail, reports that:

College basketball fans may have been surprised to turn on their computers Monday morning and find an e-mail from Amazon.com Inc. proclaiming, "UCLA Wins."

The on-line retailer mistakenly sent the e-mail to customers ahead of the NCAA championship game Monday night between the Florida Gators and the UCLA Bruins.

The body of the e-mail included the message "Congratulations (placeholder for winning team)," and went on to offer customers the chance to purchase an NCAA cap and other goods.

"I don't know if we had some Bruins who were wishful thinking," Amazon.com spokeswoman Patty Smith said, adding, "Clearly, it was a mistake."

Florida won the championship game.

More here.

Sega Buys Secret Level for $15 Million

Via Reuters.

Sega Holdings of USA Inc. said on Monday it has paid $15 million for a video game developer that helped make the console versions of the military title "America's Army."

Sega Holdings, the U.S.-based arm of Japan's Sega Sammy Holdings Inc., said the acquisition of Secret Level Inc. was part of its effort to focus more on the U.S. and European video game markets.

More here.

Europe: Music Industry Scare Tactics Continue -- More Lawsuits

Via Reuters.

The music industry launched a new wave of lawsuits and criminal proceedings against file-sharers across Europe on Tuesday, part of its drive to curb online piracy and encourage the use of legal music services.

About 2,000 cases were launched in 10 countries, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said in a statement, bringing the total to 5,500 people in 18 countries.

That figure does not include the United States, covered by its sister group, the Recording Industry Association of America, which has filed about 18,000 lawsuits.

More here.

N.Y. AG Spitzer Assails FCC on Payola

Via Red Herring.

In what promises to be a heightening turf war, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer attacked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for sabotaging his payola investigation by offering soft deals to four of the radio conglomerates that are his targets.

Mr. Spitzer has been a thorn in the side of both the terrestrial radio and music industries for illegal airtime-for-payment arrangements as both industries seek to adapt to major changes in the entertainment industry brought on by digital technology.

Mr. Spitzer told the Associated Press that the deals being bandied about by the FCC “would be a substantial evisceration of the negotiations we’re involved in.”

More here.

Microsoft: MSRT News on Alcan, Mywife.E

Via The Microsoft Anti-Malware Engineering Team blog:

Each month, the Malicious Software Removal Tool runs on approximately 250 million computers, mainly via Windows Update and Automatic Updates. In February's release of the tool, we added the ability to detect and remove a worm called Win32/Alcan. We believed that Alcan would be moderately prevalent based on data from Windows Live Safety Center and Windows Live OneCare but we were genuinely surprised once we sifted through the data from the February release. During the course of that month, the tool detected Alcan (and, specifically, Alcan.B) on just over 250 thousand unique machines, easily the top detection for the month. Compare this to the Win32/Mywife.E worm (aka CME-24), which we removed from approximately 40 thousand computers in February.

Alcan.B does not exploit any software vulnerabilities. Instead, it spreads through popular peer to peer applications and its prevalence is likely due to effective social engineering. Specifically, when sharing copies of itself over a P2P network, to name the copies, it contacts several websites to look for the names of recent, popular program cracks. Thus, the worm's name is always relatively up-to-date and attractive to those surfing these networks for cracks. Also, when the worm is run, instead of displaying nothing or popping up 50 browser windows, it displays what appears to be a setup wizard window, as displayed in our write-up. When the user clicks next, an error message is displayed. Thus, the user is fooled into thinking that what he or she just ran was a buggy or incomplete program, not a worm.

More here.

Ben Edelman: The Spyware - Click-Fraud Connection -- and Yahoo!'s Role Revisited

The Guru of All Things Adware & Spyware, Ben Edelman writes over on his blog:

In August I reported a startling number of notorious spyware programs receiving payments, directly or indirectly, from Yahoo!'s pay-per-click (PPC) (Overture) search system. Yahoo pays numerous other companies to show these ads via syndication relationships.

So when a spyware vendor can't find advertisers to buy its ad inventory directly, the spyware vendor can show Yahoo ads instead. Every time a user clicks on such an ad, the advertiser must pay Yahoo. Then Yahoo pays a revenue share to the spyware vendor that showed the ad. My August article documented relationships between Yahoo and 180solutions, Claria, Direct Revenue, eXact Advertising, IBIS, and SideFind.

My August article covered "just a few of the ... examples I have observed and recorded." Since then, my Yahoo-spyware collection has grown dramatically. I now have many dozens of different examples of Yahoo pay-per-click ads shown within spyware.

More here.

New Zealand Man to Donate Domain Name Sale Windfall to Charity

The TradeMe.co.nz website was bought by a newspaper group in March.
Image source: The BBC

Via The BBC.

A New Zealand man who made $NZ47m ($29m; £17m) from the sale of a website has said he will give it to charity as he does not know what to do with it.

Economist Gareth Morgan made the money from the sale of his stake in his son Sam's auction website, TradeMe.

Mr Morgan said he and his wife Joanne did not really need the money.

"I haven't worked for money for ages, I work because I enjoy it," he told New Zealand television. "If you're working for money you will never be satisfied."

More here.

Dilbert: Team Building Nonsense

Click for larger image.

Payment Processor Authorize.net Fears Credit Card Crooks

Joris Evers writes on C|Net News:

A major online payment provider said Monday that its processing service had been used in an attempt to charge money to stolen credit and debit cards.

Several Web hosting companies that use the Authorize.Net service to accept credit cards online saw a sudden spike in transactions over the weekend. The transactions, most for $500 and $700, were billed to Visa, MasterCard and American Express cards that belong to people across the U.S., representatives for three Web hosts told CNET News.com.

More here.

Is the AT&T-BellSouth Merger in Trouble?

Mark Del Bianco writes on C|Net News:

The conventional wisdom in Washington is that regulatory approval of the proposed AT&T-BellSouth merger is a done deal. The consensus is that this deal will sail through with flying colors--and a few not very onerous merger conditions.

The conventional wisdom may be wrong. There is a twist that ought to give the regulators pause. Both BellSouth and AT&T own considerable chunks of prime wireless spectrum that is unused and that could quickly and relatively cheaply be used to provide broadband services that would compete with telecom and cable wireline broadband services--in other words, the long-sought "third pipe" to the home or business.

More here.

Federal Judge Rules Michigan Video Game Law Illegal

An AP newswire article, via The Washington Post, reports that:

A federal judge has ruled that a Michigan law that bars retailers from selling or renting violent video games to minors is unconstitutional.

The Entertainment Software Association, Video Software Dealers Association and Michigan Retailers Association, trade groups representing U.S. computer and video game publishers, filed a lawsuit in September, charging that the law is unconstitutionally vague and limits First Amendment rights.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed the law in September, and it was scheduled to take effect Dec. 1. But U.S. District Judge George Steeh issued a preliminary injunction in November, putting the law on hold.

Steeh's ruling on Friday made the injunction permanent.

More here.

Computer Sciences Corp. Cutting 5,000 Jobs

An AP newswire article, via The Washington Post, reports that:

Computer Sciences Corp. on Tuesday said it plans to cut about 5,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its work force, over two years and is considering selling the company, a provider of information technology services.

Computer Sciences said its board has decided to explore the company's options for improving shareholder value, in response to recent expressions of interest, and has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co. as its adviser.

The announcement came after The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, reported in its Tuesday edition that Computer Sciences is in talks that could lead to a potential sale of the company for $10.6 billion or more.

More here.

UK: NTL to Acquire Virgin Mobile For $1.7B

A Reuters newswire article by Adam Pasick and Santosh Menon, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

UK cable company NTL has agreed to buy Virgin Mobile in a deal that could be worth up to 984.9 million pounds ($1.7 billion), creating a "quadruple-play" mobile, fixed-line, broadband and TV service under the Virgin brand.

Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, whose Virgin Group owns 71.2 percent of Virgin Mobile, has agreed to receive a mix of cash and NTL stock worth 378 pence per share for his stake, plus a license fee for the Virgin brand worth about 9 million pounds a year.

More here.

User Friendly: Vista Powered

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

Tokyo Prosecutors Block Bail for Livedoor Exec

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

Tokyo prosecutors blocked the release on bail of a former executive of Japan's embattled Internet firm Livedoor.

The Tokyo District Court decided earlier Tuesday to release former Livedoor representative director Fumito Kumagai, 28, on bail of 15 million yen (127,000-dollar), officials said.

But the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office complained at the court decision and his release was postponed.

Former Livedoor president Takafumi Horie, 33, and four Livedoor executives including Kumagai have been indicted on charges of tricking investors in order to hide losses at Livedoor.

More here.

TiVo's Future May Hinge on EchoStar Patent Case

Paul Bonds writes for Reuters:

In an east Texas courthouse, TiVo Inc. and EchoStar Communications have been battling over a key patent that makes digital video recorders work. A TiVo victory -- which experts deem likely -- would not only resurrect the fledgling company but also encourage a shift in DVR strategies at the major pay TV providers.

Some industry observers have put TiVo's chance of victory at 70% or more and see EchoStar paying TiVo damages of $95 million-$300 million. Possibly more important for TiVo, a ruling instantly would strengthen its hand in negotiating what have been very elusive licensing deals with cable TV companies that have been selling their own less-expensive DVRs and cutting TiVo out of the loop.

That TiVo sued EchoStar in tiny Marshall, Texas, was no accident, said Bradford Lyerla, intellectual property attorney and partner with Marshall, Gerstein & Borun, a specialty firm in Chicago. Juries there, Lyerla said, find in favor of the plaintiffs in patent trials about 80% of the time.

TiVo is suing EchoStar, the parent of the Dish satellite TV service, claiming it stole TiVo's technology that allows users to digitally record one show while watching another.

More here.

Gapingvoid: Micropersuasion

Via gapingvoid.com. Enjoy!

U.S. Air Marshals Plead Guilty to Drug Smuggling

Your air transportation safety in action. While this sort of criminal activity is rare, it is more troubling when travesties such as this occur as well.

An AP newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

Two U.S. air marshals pleaded guilty Monday to accepting money to smuggle cocaine on a flight to Las Vegas and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

The marshals admitted they accepted $15,000 to use their positions as air marshals to bypass airport security and smuggle 15 pounds of cocaine.

More here.

Indian Army General Slams Google Earth

An AP newswire article, via CNN, reports that:

Google Inc's free mapping program on the Internet compromises India's strategic infrastructure and the satellite imagery could be used for military purposes by adversaries, its army chief has been quoted as saying.

Google Earth, an Internet site launched last year, allows users to access satellite photos that show some sensitive locations in various countries.

"These satellite images compromise our sensitive and strategic sites," General J.J. Singh was cited as saying on Tuesday by the Indian Express newspaper. "This would give advantage to our adversaries."

More here.

4 April 1994: Netscape Communications is Founded

00:01

The logo used by Netscape from 1994 to 2002.
Image source: Wikipedia

Via WIkipedia.

Netscape Communications Corporation was the publisher of the Netscape web browsers as well as many other Internet and Intranet client and server software products. It was never a very large company by revenues, but it played a significant role in the popularisation of the internet, and a central role in the Microsoft anti-trust case. It was a classic internet bubble stock. The company only existed from 1994 to 2003, latterly as a subsidiary of AOL, but the Netscape brand is still in use.

The company was founded as Mosaic Communications Corporation on April 4, 1994 by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark, and was the first company to attempt to capitalize on the nascent World Wide Web. It released a web browser called Mosaic Netscape 0.9 on October 13, 1994. This browser was subsequently renamed Netscape Navigator, and the company took on the 'Netscape' name on November 14, 1994 to avoid trademark ownership problems with NCSA, where the initial Netscape employees had previously created the NCSA Mosaic web browser. (The Mosaic Netscape web browser shared no code with NCSA Mosaic.)

Netscape had a successful IPO on August 9, 1995. The stock was to be offered at $14 per share; a last-minute decision doubled the initial offering to $28 per share; the stock's value reached $75 on the first day of trading, which was nearly a record for a stock's first-day gain. The company's revenues doubled every quarter in 1995.

One of Netscape's stated goals was to "level the playing field" among operating systems by providing a consistent web browsing experience across them. The Netscape web browser interface was identical on any computer. Netscape later experimented with prototypes of a web-based system which would allow a user to access and edit his files anywhere across a network, no matter what computer or operating system he happened to be using.

This did not escape the attention of Microsoft, which viewed the commoditization of operating systems as a direct threat to its bottom line. Several Microsoft executives are reported to have visited the Netscape campus in June 1995 to propose dividing the market, which would have allowed Microsoft to produce web browser software on Windows while leaving other operating systems to Netscape. Netscape refused.

More here.

Hollywood Director Charged in Pellicano Wiretap Case

Via The Smoking Gun.

In the latest fallout from the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping investigation, director John McTiernan ("Die Hard," "Predator," "The Hunt for Red October") was charged today with lying to FBI agents probing the disgraced private eye's rogue operation.

In a criminal information, McTiernan, 55, was charged with making false statements to the bureau during an interview last month. Prosecutors contend that McTiernan lied when he denied knowledge about a wiretap placed on the telephone of Hollywood producer Charles Roven ("Three Kings," "Batman Begins").

The information, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that McTiernan, had actually "hired and paid" Pellicano to bug Roven and that the two men discussed information obtained from that wiretap. The criminal charge does not specify when the wiretap occurred or why it was ordered by McTiernan, who co-produced 2002's "Rollerball" with Roven.

More here.

Two Plead Guilty in Huge U.S. CD Piracy Bust

Via Reuters.

Two men involved in what U.S. authorities called the largest bust of pirated music CDs and computer software in America each pleaded guilty to five criminal counts on Monday, law enforcement officials said.

The pair, Ye Teng Wen, 30, and Hao He, 30, both of Union City, California, pleaded guilty on five piracy-related charges to making 200,000 illegal CDs, much of it Latin music, said Kevin Ryan, U.S. Attorney for Northern California.

The two, along with a third man, Yaobin Zhai, 33, were indicted in October of copying music CDs, Symantec Corp. computer security software, and Adobe Systems Photoshop.

More here.

Big Easy May Face Showdown Over Wireless Internet

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

A showdown may be looming over a free wireless Internet network that New Orleans set up to boost recovery after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the city.

Calling the network vital to the city's economic comeback, New Orleans technology chief Greg Meffert is vowing to keep the system running as is, even if it means breaking a state law that permits its full operation only during emergencies.

He says he's ready to go to court, if necessary.

"If you can get to the Net, you can do business," Meffert said.

More here.

Intuit Files Lawsuit Against H&R Block

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

Intuit Inc. on Monday sued H&R Block Inc. for alleged copyright infringement, escalating the recent acrimony between the leading makers of tax preparation software.

The San Jose federal court lawsuit alleges H&R Block has been airing television commercials that echo Intuit's promotions for its market-leading TurboTax software.

Mountain View-based Intuit is seeking a court order to stop the H&R Block ads, which so far have aired in Oregon and Florida.

More here.

Forgent Networks Settles With Xerox on JPG Patent

Via The Austin Business Journal.

Forgent Networks Inc. says it dismissed Xerox Corp. from legal action regarding Forgent's JPEG-related patent.

Austin-based Forgent says the terms were "mutually agreeable" and confidential.

Forgent has litigation pending against about 30 companies for alleged infringement of the so-called '672 Patent. Following the filing of the litigation in federal court in Northern California, 14 companies that were defendants have signed license agreements with Forgent.

More here.

Ericsson Buys Marconi Federal

Michael Hardy writes on FCW.com:

Ericsson has acquired Marconi Communications Federal in an effort to deepen its reach into the U.S. federal market.

The organization, which will change its name to Ericsson Federal, will combine Marconi's strength in the federal market with Ericcson's expertise in wireless and systems integration, according to an Ericsson announcement. The unit will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson.

More here.

Big Brother Cleans Up Crime in New Jersey Town

Mark Egan writes for Reuters:

Lenox Avenue in suburban East Orange was long a hotbed of drugs and gun mayhem and one of New Jersey's toughest streets. But Big Brother has cleaned it up.

Police here say that thanks to new technology there has not been a single violent crime in almost a year on a street where the notorious Bloods gang sold $10 hits of crack cocaine and drive-by shootings were once commonplace.

Now high-tech cameras and gunshot sensors are mounted at each end of Lenox Avenue, and on many other East Orange streets. The residential avenue of mainly multifamily homes is blocked from traffic and, with the exception of the 24-hour police presence, it looks as tranquil as most New Jersey suburbs.

"There's no drug dealers or nothing here. They all left," said Andre Davis, 15, riding his scooter on Lenox. "There's no gang bangers, no drugs. The cops done a good job."

More here.

GAO: SEC Has Failed to Fix Security Gaps

Mary Mosquera writes on GCN.com:

Information security weaknesses persist at the Securities Exchange Commission because the agency has not followed through on recommendations the Government Accountability Office made last year for comprehensive, agencywide information security.

SEC has implemented just a few of its recommendations, GAO said in a report.

SEC has replaced a vulnerable, publicly accessible workstation and implemented change control procedures for a major application, but has not yet implemented effective controls for remote access to its servers, the report said. It also has not securely configured network devices and servers or put in place auditing and monitoring mechanisms to detect and track security incidents.

More here.

Quote of the Day: John Paczkowski

"Only Hollywood in its 20th century box could conceive of a digital distribution model for films that bleeds away all consumer advantage and convenience while preserving the economies that guarantee the industry higher margins."

- John Paczkowski, on the news that some Hollywood studios are starting to sell digital versions of movies which are DRM'd so that they cannot be burned to DVD and cost $20-30 apiece.

FBI Signs 5-Year Contract with ChoicePoint for Analysis Software

William P. Dizard III writes on GCN.com:

The FBI has expanded its use of software that helps analyze how criminal organizations operate by signing a five-year licensing agreement with ChoicePoint Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga., the company announced today. ChoicePoint, which will provide products from its subsidiary i2 Inc., estimated the value of the contract at $12 million.

ChoicePoint, a major data aggregator that culls information from dozens of public databases and distributes it to corporations and government agencies, links its information with i2’s Analyst’s Notebook tool and other software.

More here.

Dilbert: Warming Space

Click for larger image.

Intelligence Watchdog Slow to Bite?

Andrew Zajac writes in The Chicago Tribune:

When a privacy-rights group requested records to show how many times a secretive presidential oversight board had asked the Justice Department to investigate possible violations of intelligence-gathering laws since 2001, the answer that came back last month was as simple as it was startling.

Zero.

One possible reason: For more than half of President Bush's first term, the Intelligence Oversight Board had no members because Bush did not appoint anyone to it.

Bush didn't make appointments to the board until March 17, 2003, well after his administration had begun an aggressive post-Sept. 11, 2001, expansion of intelligence-related activity.

More here.

eSoft Files Patent Infringement Lawsuits Against Five Companies

Via eSoft.

eSoft, Inc., a leading vendor of integrated Internet security and content management solutions, announced today that it has filed patent infringement lawsuits in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado against Astaro Corporation, Barracuda Networks, Blue Coat, Fortinet and SonicWall for the infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,961,773 relating to software management technology.

Titled "System and Method for Managing Application Service Providers," the patent is directed to software management systems and, more particularly, to systems and methods for selecting, ordering, installing, managing, updating, and if necessary, uninstalling software applications provided to an entity by one or more application service providers or other sources. eSoft was awarded the patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on November 1, 2005.

eSoft is seeking to stop the companies from marketing, selling, using or otherwise infringing the patent and also seeks damages relating to their unauthorized use of eSoft's patented technology.

More here.

America Online Officially Changes Name to AOL

Nate Mook writes on BetaNews:

Time Warner's America Online division has officially changed its name to AOL, LLC., a move that is intended to aid the company's efforts to shed its aging image as a dial-up service provider.

AOL has been busy rolling out a new generation of Web services targeted at consumers outside its walled garden, including those not in the United States.

More here.

ICANN Releases Reports on Alternative TLD Systems and DDoS Amplification Attacks

Via CircleID.

In the report, “Alternative TLD Name Systems and Roots: Conflict, Control and Consequences [.pdf]”, ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) considers conditions and factors that could accelerate fragmentation, destabilize root name service and alter the existing name system management framework to a much greater degree than pure for-profit initiatives. It presents a rudimentary classification of alternative root name server systems and alternative TLD name system administrators. For each class, it attempts to identify the stated or implied incentives for operating an alternative root name service and managing alternative TLDs. It describes the operational models and the technical mechanisms each class of operators employs to provide name resolution and registration services. It then considers the impact on Internet users and service providers (ISPs), domain name registrants, and registries that operate under agreements with ICANN.

In early February 2006, name servers hosting Top Level Domain zones were the repeated recipients of extraordinary heavy traffic loads. Analysis of traffic by TLD name server operators and security experts at large confirmed that DNS packets comprising the attack traffic exhibited characteristics associated with previously attempted DDoS attacks collectively known as amplification attacks. In the report, “Security Advisory for DNS Distributed Denial of Service Amplification Attacks [.pdf]”, the advisory describes representative incidents, identifies the impacts, and recommends countermeasures that TLD name server operators can employ for immediate and long-term relief from the harmful effects of these attacks.

EarthLink Resurrects MindSpring Brand

Nate Mook writes on BetaNews:

EarthLink said Monday it is bringing back MindSpring -- one of the most successful Internet brands of the 90s -- for a free voice over IP offering. Like Skype, MindSpring users can make free calls via the PC and receive voicemail to their e-mail address. Outbound calls to cell and landline phones can be made for a small fee.

Built on SIP, MindSpring is also interoperable with Google Talk and other instant messaging services using the protocol. A beta version of the MindSpring product was first launched last year as EarthLink Vling, and the final product runs on Windows XP and 2000. "Our MindSpring product is a key building block in EarthLink's suite of Internet voice offerings, so it's appropriate that we name the service after one of the pioneering Internet companies," said Tom Hsieh, director of voice products and engineering at EarthLink.

More here.

Oops: Trend Micro Data Revealed Due to Virus

A PC World article by Martyn Williams, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

The failure of a Trend Micro employee to install his company's own antivirus software led to the uploading of some company reports to a popular Japanese peer-to-peer file sharing network, the company said Monday.

About a year ago an employee, who is no longer with Trend Micro, copied data including reports to his boss and proposals regarding the company's products to his home computer, said Kazuhisa Tagaya, a spokesman for the Tokyo company. However the computer was infected through the Winny file sharing application with a virus that caused the files to be released over the file-sharing network.

More here.

Verizon to Pay Affected Customers for Spam Blockade

Brian McWilliams writes on the Spam Kings blog:

A settlement has been proposed in the class action lawsuit over Verizon's aggressive spam blocking. Under the deal, affected Verizon Internet Services customers may receive up to $49 if they failed to receive "legitimate email" between October 2004 and May 2005 from Asia or Europe.

Notice of the proposed settlement was emailed to some Verizon subscribers over the weekend. Information is also available online at emailblockingsettlement.com.

The lawsuit stems from Verizon's anti-spam strategy of briefly blocking all email from large swaths of IP addresses, effectively cordoning off entire countries from emailing Verizon customers.

More here.

Lucent-Alcatel Bad News for Juniper?

Om Malik writes on his Next Generation blog:

Lucent and Alcatel merger might just ruin Juniper’s Monday (and days to follow) according to some analysts. Lucent has been a major OEM partner for Juniper, and has been selling a lot of routers for the #2 router maker. Lucent helped Juniper win contracts at China Telecom, Sprint, Vodaphone Australia and KPN in the Netherlands.

Lucent now accounts for about 8% of total Juniper sales, according to Mark Sue of RBC Capital Markets. That is at risk he says, and in a note to his clients writes, “With the availability of Alcatel’s routers however we believe Lucent is increasingly likely to promote Alcatel’s routers versus Juniper’s routers. Alcatel’s family of routers has thus far won significant customers both here and abroad.”

More here.

Enigma Machine Auction Hits €40,000

John Oates writes on The Register:

The Enigma machine up for sale on eBay has reached €40,150, with seven hours still to go.

The machine is being sold by an "eBay shop" in Munich which uses the online auction house to sell items for customers. A spokesman at the shop told us the machine had been brought in by a customer who got it from his grandfather. He said there had already been a lot of interest in the code breaking machine, but the seller was hoping for a price of at least €40,000.

More here.

User Friendly: Vista Hype

Via UserFriendly.org.

Click for larger image.

Anonymizer Software Circumvents China's Great Firewall

Sumner Lemon writes on InfoWorld:

Anonymizer on Saturday announced the availability of its Operation: Anti-Censorship software, which is designed to circumvent Chinese government efforts to block access to certain Web sites.

The software is available free to users who register their e-mail address at the Operation: Anti-Censorship Web site. The software requires a user to access the Internet from a Chinese IP (Internet Protocol) address for it to work.

There's just one potential hitch: the Web site and registration information is only available in English. No Chinese-language information is available for those Chinese Internet users who don't read English.

Anonymizer executives were not immediately available to comment.

More here.

Countless Dens of Uncatchable Data Thieves

Tom Zeller Jr. writes in The New York Times:

You've probably never met Sergey Kozerev, a former student at the State University of Technology and Design in St. Petersburg, Russia, but it's possible that he's mugged you.

In the online world, he operates under the pseudonym Zo0mer, according to American investigators, and he smugly hawks all manner of stolen consumer information alongside dozens of other peddlers at a Web site he helps manage.

"My prices are lowers then most of other vendors have and I will deliver them in real time," reads a typically fractured Zo0mer post.

At the same forum, another user, "tabbot," offers "any U.S. bank accounts" for sale.

"Balance from 3K and above: $40," he writes. "Regular brokerage accounts from 3K and above: $70."

More here.

Gapingvoid: Impressed With Your Own Cleverness

Via gapingvoid.com. Enjoy!

Verizon Sells Carribbean, Latin American Assets for $3.7B

A Reuters newswire article, via CNN/Money, reports that:

Verizon Communications Corp. said Monday it had reached agreements to sell its Caribbean and Latin American telecom operation in three separate transactions for about $3.7 billion.

Verizon will sell its interests in providers in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela to America Movil and Telefonos de Mexico.

The three properties served more than 15 million customers for wireless, traditional telephone and Internet services and have about 17,000 employees.

More here.

They Still Don't Get It: Hollywood Studios to Sell Movies Online

DRM'd so that you can't burn DVDs, and $20-30 apiece? No way.

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

Hollywood studios will start selling digital versions of films such as "Brokeback Mountain" and "King Kong" on the Internet this week, the first time major movies have been available online to own.

The films can't be burned onto a disc for viewing on a DVD player. Still, the move is seen as a step toward full digital distribution of movies over the Internet.

Six studios said they would announce Monday that sales will begin through the download Web site Movielink. The site is jointly owned by five of the seven major studios.

Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and MGM will offer some first-run and older titles on Movielink. New films will be priced similar to DVDs — between $20 and $30 — while older titles will sell for $10 to $20.

More here.

Singapore Warns Bloggers Against Political Postings

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

Political debate on the Internet could fuel "dangerous discourse" in Singapore, the government said on Monday, warning people who post political commentary on Web sites could face prosecution.

Speaking in parliament, senior minister of state Balaji Sadasivan, said anyone using the Internet to "persistently propagate, promote or circulate political issues" about Singapore during election periods was breaking the law.

More here.

3 April 1986: Happy Birthday, IBM Convertible

00:01

The IBM Convertible
Image source: IBM

Via Wikipedia.

The IBM PC Convertible, released April 3, 1986, was IBM's first laptop computer and was also the first IBM computer to utilize the now-standard 3.5" floppy disk. Like modern laptops, it featured power management and the ability to run from batteries.

Also known as the IBM 5140, it utilized an Intel 80c88 CPU (a CMOS version of the Intel 8088) running at 4.77 MHz, 256 kB of RAM (expandable to 512 kB), dual 720 kB 3.5" floppy drives, and a monochrome CGA-compatible LCD screen at a price of $2,000. It weighed 13 pounds and featured a built-in carrying handle.

The PC Convertible had expansion capabilities through a proprietary ISA bus-based port on the rear of the machine. Extension modules, including a small printer and a video output module, could be snapped into place. The machine could also take an internal modem, but there was no room for an internal hard disk.

Pressing the power button on the computer did not turn it off, but put the machine into a "suspend" mode. This avoided the long process of booting up.

The screen was not very tall, so text characters and graphics were compressed vertically, appearing about half their normal height. However, the display was capable of resolutions of 80x25 (text), 640x200, and 320x200.

The machine sold very poorly, because it competed against faster portables based on the Intel 80286 that offered optional hard drives from companies such as Compaq, and laptops from companies such as Toshiba and Zenith that were lighter and offered similar specifications, sometimes at half the price. The screen and keyboard were also widely criticized.

More here.

Claria Alert: Every Click You Make, They'll Be Watching You

And they (Claria) are wrong, wrong, wrong... so very wrong.

Bob Tedeschi writes in The New York Times:

Would you trust a company enough to let it follow your every click online?

Claria, a company once vilified for raining pop-up advertisements across the Internet through its Gator software, is betting its business that the answer is yes. Claria said it would announce Monday the release of PersonalWeb, a service that will let people download a piece of tracking software and receive a home page filled with news stories and other information tailored to their interests.

If a man, for example, downloaded the software and surfed through stories about the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament and car reviews, his PersonalWeb home page would reflect those interests the next time he clicked to it. In addition to showing newer headlines about cars and college basketball, the page might also feature ads from car companies or for jerseys from the man's favorite team.

Claria says that because those ads are so closely aligned to the user's interests and recent behavior, marketers will be willing to pay more than they might on other sites for the ability to reach PersonalWeb users.

More here.

Fergie's Tech Blog

Saturday, April 08, 2006

U.S. Is Studying Military Strike Options on Iran

9 April 1919: Happy Birthday, J. Presper Eckert

Defense Tech: Bunker Busters Readied -- Iran Attack Near?

Spanish Police Swoop in on Internet Pornography and Piracy

Comedy Central: Leading A Humor Revolution

MIT Pranksters Nab Caltech Cannon

Yes! Rolling Stones Ride Roughshod Over China’s Censors

User Friendly: Google Loathing

First Images from Mars Orbiter's High Resolution Camera Wow Researchers

Google Wi-Fi Plan Stirs Big Brother Concerns

'Megahacker' Extradited from Argentina to Spain

Concern Over Pervasive RFID Tagging Spreads to Europe

Lara Croft Raids Guinness World Records

Friday, April 07, 2006

8 April 1869: Happy Birthday, Harvey Cushing

DHS Official Had Previous Pornography Incident

Freescale and Motorola Ditch the UWB Forum

Update: Child Porn Charge Against DoD IPv6 Director Dropped

Judge OKs AOL Class-Action Settlement

Microsoft Looks to Thwart 'Typosquatters' With New Tool

Aussies Seek Input on Telstra Sale

Wiretap Whistleblower: Mark Klein's Statement

StreamCast to Seek Trial in Copyright Case

How The Anti-Virus Industry Is Turning A White Hat Black, or (at least) Gray

UK Politicians Shun .EU Domain Names

Homeland Cyber-Sex Case Causes Concern

House Subpoenas Phone Data Sites

Court Filings Tell of Internet Spying

Domain Registrar Exposes Customer Data

More Dirt: Direct Revenue Uses a PI to Hunt Down Antispyware Researcher

Norway Aims to Reduce Microsoft Dependence

Video Games Get Very, Very Naughty

Spy Tech: Teddy Bear Surveillance Camera

UK: New Site Launched for Disgruntled Wanadoo Subscribers

Airlines Put Communications Company Up For Sale

User Friendly: More Wikipedia, Britannica, Nature

F-Secure: Direct Revenue Hate Mail

Defense Tech: High Energy Laser End-to-End Operational Simulation

Distraction: Weird Fortune Cookies.

Crossplatform Virus - The Latest Proof of Concept

Netcraft: March 2006 Hosting Reliability Survey

Tomb Raider Delayed in U.S. Because of Breasts

Google: Peek-a-Boo, We See You

H-1B Visa Law Criticized

Gapingvoid: Corporate Has-Beens

UK: Huge DVD Piracy Factory Uncovered

F.B.I. and Justice Dept. Are Faulted Over Child Predators on Web

390,000 Applications for .EU Names in the First 100 Minutes

Thursday, April 06, 2006

7 April 1964: Happy Birthday, IBM System/360

Texas Instruments, NEC, Matsushita Consider 3G Partnership

DoD IPv6 Director Arrested on Possession of Child Porn

World's First Standalone Kernel Mode Bot?

U.S. Attorney General Won't Rule Out Warrantless Wiretaps of Purely Domestic Nature

Sprint Nextel Prepares to Take on DSL Providers

AccessLine Expands VoIP Services to Austin, San Antonio

FTC, California Attorney General Halt Illegal Spam Operation

Haywired: Feuding Owners in Court Over 'Lewd' Website

Gapingvoid: This Is My One Shot

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft to Patch 5 Vulnerabilites

Banks Rap Internet Anti-Gambling Proposal

Japanese Companies Checking Employee PC Use

'Virtual University of Terror' Housed on Internet, Group Says

Nanotech Product Recalled in Germany

Defense Tech: Iraqi Army Personnel Retinal Scanning

Canada: ATM Bandits Sentenced to Jail Term

User Friendly: Wikipedia, Britannica, Nature

Revenue Hunger: AT&T Calls for Chinese Telecom Deregulation

Those Whacky Chinese Fashions: Keyboard Shoes!

ICANN Board Member Quits

Netcraft: April 2006 Web Server Survey

Gapingvoid: Love is Like a Butterfly

Singapore Attacked Over Political Blog Censorship

Schneier: Why VoIP Needs Crypto

AT&T Whistleblower Claims to Document Illegal NSA Surveillance

New Bill Would Clean Up Caller ID

Microsoft to Buy Lionhead Studios

Wednesday, April 05, 2006