Online use booming, says UN [in E-commerce and Development Report 2002]: The number of people using the internet around the world is booming, despite the global economic troubles, with near 30% growth expected in 2002.

And the winner (of the Blogger redesign contest) is... Kevin Conboy! [formerly of Statera and SpireMedia]

Que futuro para o sector das telecomunicações em Portugal? [resumo do estudo]

E-mail virus insults its victims: Known as Winevar, the computer worm arrives in e-mail as an attachment that infects Windows PCs when opened and displays a dialog box pronouncing, "What a foolish thing you have done!" Despite the playful tone however, the virus is no joke.

PCs shape up as masters of disguise: This week, Via Technologies released a new version of its Mini-ITX motherboard. Because of its comparatively small size, the Mini-ITX - a circuit board complete with the processor and many of the other components necessary to build a PC - is altering what desktops look like.

State control of the internet in China: Foreign companies, including Websense and Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, Microsoft, have reportedly provided important technology which helps the Chinese authorities censor the Internet. Nortel Networks along with some other international firms are reported to be providing China with the technology which will help it shift from filtering content at the international gateway level to filtering content of individual computers, in homes, Internet cafes, universities and businesses.

Risk of internet collapse rising: Simulated attacks on key internet hubs have shown how vulnerable the worldwide network is to disruption by disaster or terrorist action. [mas não foi o que sucedeu no 11 de Setembro...]

Forging Terror: How rapid advances in scanning, printing, and other technologies have made counterfeiting a potent new weapon of holy war.

Immobots Take Control: From photocopiers to space probes, machines injected with robotic self-awareness are reliable problem solvers.

"Gerentes de TI, los mayores piratas": Los gerentes de TI representan el grupo de empleados que más software ilegal descargan y copian en horas de trabajo, revela investigación realizada en Suecia.

Looking back at 1992's look forward: Predicting the future is easy; sticking around to see the outcome of your predictions is hard. Ten years ago, I consulted several Silicon Valley experts and came up with ``Scenes from 2002,'' showing how technology would change our lives in a decade. Published in the Mercury News on Oct. 25, 1992, my scenario blended hope and hype. Now that 2002 is almost past, I've decided to revisit my crystal-ball gazing and rate myself against the real world.

Finland proposes extensive data retention while the country's largest Telco executives arrested for data misuse

A Computing Pioneer of the 1970's Joins Hewlett-Packard: Alan Kay, a personal computing innovator who was a leader of Xerox's pioneering Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970's, has joined Hewlett-Packard as a senior researcher.

The Rogue DNS Phenomenon: Unlike ICANN, alternative registrar OpenNIC is designed to operate in a democratic fashion, according to its founder, Robin Bandy.

Doubts raised over Microsoft patches: Danish firm finds flaws in security fixes

eSafe Directions 2003-2004 - Discussion Paper

Info in Your In-Box: These 15 mailing lists and online newsletters deliver tech news and tips right to you - for free

Anti-Leech: Anti-Theft campaign This campaign was started to make people aware of the problems related to using programs that block ads, pop ups and cookies.

Oversimulated Suburbia: The Sims, the blockbuster computer game, is going online, and boy, would Tocqueville have enjoyed being around to see what happens. Here is what Middle America longs to do: play house.

Microsofter: The software giant has emerged from its antitrust quagmire, and it has a new product to pitch. Might its reversal of fortune have something to do with Steve Ballmer's re-engineered personality?

Is it time for a GeekPAC? Geeks are beginning to realize they need to punish the Luddites in Congress who are standing in the way of progress.

Home is where the computer is: Computers are playing a more central role in the home, with more and more people citing them as the most important electronic device in their household. A Harris Interactive study backed by Microsoft and Dell Computer found that 50 percent of respondents said the computer was more important than any other digital device they own, including CD players, cell phones and DVD players. The 2002 International Digital Lifestyle study polled 1,500 people in the United States and Europe who own a computer and at least one other digital device--a prime target market for many consumer electronics makers. The study did not ask people about their television use, however.

Bill Gates au secours du Futuroscope? L'idée est de dédier un pavillon entier du parc aux jeux vidéo, mais pas n'importe lesquels : ceux de la nouvelle génération, avec des consoles connectables sur Internet, permettant de jouer avec des partenaires du monde entier.

Un científico sueco asegura que los ordenadores portátiles pueden quemar la piel del pene

Computer Science - Links

Who rules the (web) world? Microsoft and AOL Leading the Top 10 Parent Companies, both Microsoft and AOL Time Warner attracted more than 92.6m unique visitors, during the month of October 2002. Yahoo! drew 79.8m unique visitors, while visitors to the United States Government websites totaled more than 38.3m visitors. Google garnered nearly 37.7m unique visitors, placing fifth overall. Following those big names in the top five come Spanish web group Terra Lycos (37.0m), About-Primedia (34.5m), RealNetworks (34.4m), Amazon (34.0m) and eBay (32.5m)

The End of the Hardware Era? IBM's decision to put $1 billion into services R&D is a telling sign that the ground under info tech is shifting radically

Internet Damage From 9/11 Said Minor: The Internet performed well under the strain of the Sept. 11 attacks, but more planning is needed to ensure another disaster doesn't cause greater disruption, according to a National Academy of Sciences report

10 Rules for Taming the E-mail Monster: Organize e-mails into context groups. Quickly eliminate what doesn't matter. Read it once, but right away. Keep it short. Avoid e-mail multipliers. Use e-mail as a filing system. Return e-mail you should not have received. Use as appropriate medium. Keep assistants in the loop. Use the telephone.

Smartphones and handheld computers: Computing's new shape - As two industries collide, a new kind of computer may emerge

Throttled at birth: A new way of thwarting viral epidemics on computers

Agency Weighed, but Discarded, Plan Reconfiguring the Internet: The Pentagon research agency that is exploring how to create a vast database of electronic transactions and analyze them for potential terrorist activity considered but rejected another surveillance idea: tagging Internet data with unique personal markers to make anonymous use of some parts of the Internet impossible.

Software aims to put your life on a disk: Engineers are working on software to load every photo you take, every letter you write - in fact your every memory and experience - into a surrogate brain that never forgets anything, New Scientist can reveal It is part of a curious venture dubbed the MyLifeBits project, in which engineers at Microsoft's Media Presence lab in San Francisco are aiming to build multimedia databases that chronicle people's life events and make them searchable. "Imagine being able to run a Google-like search on your life," says Gordon Bell, one of the developers.

Flash Award 2002

HP Displays Its Desktop of the Future

Some Web Sites Are Posting a 'Keep Out' Sign to Law Enforcement: Hundreds of Web sites offering pirated movies, games and other goodies have adopted a curious line of defense: a start-up page that tells law enforcement agents they're not allowed to look inside. With a few words changed here or there, the same "disclaimer" is popping up on Internet sites hawking items ranging from replicas of designer sunglasses to instructions for stealing satellite TV signals. It orders all police, government agents and anti-piracy officials to leave the site immediately - and no peeking on the way out!

Teléfono para sordos y mucho más: Un teléfono para sordos y un arpa a rayos láser. Estas son algunas de las novedades presentadas por inventores venezolanos en "Eureka", el 51º Salón Mundial de la Innovación y Nuevas Tecnologías, que acaba de concluir en Bruselas.

Study details technology's role in boosting productivity: The widespread adoption of technology has made American workers more productive and some businesses larger and more dominant, even during the recent recession, than they otherwise would have been. That's the conclusion of a detailed study of the role technology has played in transforming the economy since the 1990s. Written by consulting firm McKinsey & Co., the report finds that technology by itself is not ``a silver bullet'' for all industries.

Phones more disruptive than PC or Internet - Rheingold

Tech to hit bottom in 2002 (IDC): Research firm IDC said that the worldwide information technology industry will suffer its largest decline ever in 2002, shrinking by 2.3 percent. The company released the numbers Wednesday as part of its Worldwide Information Technology and Communications Spending Forecast. The report comes the same day as a Bush aide told Comdex Fall 2002 attendees that the tech sector won't recover as quickly as the overall economy.

Future of Wi-Fi: Fast, Fast, Fast Wireless networking is evolving. But while new versions of Wi-Fi offer plenty of additional speed, each has trade-offs. Wi-Fi joins broadband access debate: Souped-up Wi-Fi networks have elbowed into the debate over how to spread broadband Web access to small cities and rural areas, a debate that until recently focused solely on cable modems and digital subscriber lines.

Microsoft wants your cellphone: The software king has big plans for making the world of mobile phones safe for Windows. Can phone makers, and a little Norwegian company called Opera, stop the onslaught?

Enhancing Computer Security: A Tech Sector That's Set to Soar: While overall IT spending is likely to slide next year, companies plan to buy plenty of security products - especially from the market's top names Microsoft to Limit 'Critical' Security Warnings

Virtual Keyboards Approach Reality: Three competing companies—VKB of Jerusalem, Israel, Canesta of San Jose, CA, and Virtual Devices of Pittsburgh, PA—are selling products that use lasers to project an image of a full-sized QWERTY keyboard on a flat surface. Optical sensors then track the user’s finger movements and translate them into keystrokes on a screen. The owner of a mobile gadgets equipped with such a keyboard could prop it up on a seatback tray or a briefcase and type away, eschewing a full laptop or a collapsible keyboard.

Big Brother Goes to Washington: A privacy expert [Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center] explains how the government could use a new security law to spy on Americans

Where Is MP4? Although MP4 does not get the kind of press that prior standards have received, it is alive and well. Apple's QuickTime supports it, and several other products also use the standard.

Deloitte & Touche Fast 500: They are the companies that rally behind innovation. They break down obstacles. And systematically defy the odds. We salute their efforts with the Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 500 program. Making the Fast 500 list is a quantum achievement. Those chosen must outperform other companies represented by Deloitte & Touche’s 22 regional U.S. and Canadian Fast 50 programs, nominations submitted directly to the Technology Fast 500, and public company database research.

Internet, e-commerce boom despite economic woes: Use of the Internet is booming all around the world, bucking the global economic downturn and the crisis in the information technology industry, according to United Nations figures

Sims Family Values America’s hottest PC game is moving to the Net, where thousands of players will interact and live virtual lives. Is this the future of home entertainment?

Death by Spam: The e-mail you know and love is about to vanish. One-third of the 30 billion e-mails sent worldwide each day are spam. That's 10 billion daily pitches for herbal Viagra, Nigerian scams, and genital-enlarging creams piling up in our inboxes. Neither legislation nor litigation against spammers has stemmed the tide, and they're not going to have much of an effect in the future, either. It's time to give up: Despite the best efforts of legislators, lawyers, and computer programmers, spam has won. Spam is killing e-mail. Seething over Spam: New tools and legislation can help - but nothing can stop it all

How Much Hack Info Is Too Much? To disclose or not disclose - it's a question that's been under heavy discussion in the computer security industry over the past year.

Mob behavior being altered by technology: Protesters like those in Seattle have managed to use technology effectively in part because it is still largely unregulated. Under the Bush administration, efforts are under way to monitor and control electronic communications under the banner of national security. By the same token, the entertainment industry wants to shut down sharing of music, movies and other digital content. With banks, corporations and government institutions increasingly pressuring clients to move financial transactions and communications online, each American will soon have a unique around-the-clock digital footprint to monitor or trace. Smart or not, mobs have succeeded mostly because of their suddenness and impromptu nature. No student of movements would argue that mobs are always a good thing, either. The mentality cuts both ways.

Turning up the heat on Web privacy:When Microsoft introduced version 6 of its Internet Explorer browser last year, many Webmasters were puzzled to find that their cookies were being blocked in increasing numbers. The culprit was IE's default implementation of the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P), and for that, the irate Webmasters had Lorrie Cranor to thank.

Secret U.S. court OKs electronic spying: A secretive federal court [...] granted police broad authority to monitor Internet use, record keystrokes and employ other surveillance methods against terror and espionage suspects.

The nonsense of 'knowledge management': The conclusion is reached that 'knowledge management' is an umbrella term for a variety of organizational activities, none of which are concerned with the management of knowledge. Those activities that are not concerned with the management of information are concerned with the management of work practices, in the expectation that changes in such areas as communication practice will enable information sharing. [19.11.02] Journal of Knowledge Management

Microsoft makes 85% margin on Windows system: Microsoft has revealed for the first time that it has made profit margins of 85 per cent on its Windows system while its remaining businesses made losses, raising questions about the benefits of the group's costly efforts at diversification. The client division, which markets Windows, generated operating profits last quarter of $2.48bn (£1.57bn) on revenues of $2.89bn, implying margins of 85 per cent. [...] Among Microsoft's other businesses, the home and entertainment division, which includes the Xbox games console, lost $177m in the quarter on revenues of $505m. Salomon Smith Barney estimates the company loses about $120 on each console it sells. MSN, the internet service provider and portal, lost $97m, down from losses of $199m in the same quarter last year, on revenues up from $431m to $531m. [História original:] Microsoft SEC filing shows hideous losses except for Windows

ISPs Hail Tough EU Stance on Broadband Price Cuts: Europe's Internet service providers (ISPs) are cheering a tough new European Commission proposal that would prod national telecom operators to cut wholesale charges for high-speed Internet access.

Japan may drop Windows to boost security: The Japanese government is contemplating to replace Microsoft Windows, used in much of its computer networks, with another operating system to bolster security. According to the local newspaper Asahi Shimbun, the planned move came in the wake of recent event of leakage of secure data from Japan's military network. Instead the government is looking the possibility of adopting open source programs like Linux.

'Vice City' sees killer sales: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is off to a tire-squealing start - perhaps the fastest video game off the line in the industry's 20-year history.

Study: Surfing's up for mamas and papas: A study scheduled for release Monday from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that parents with children living at home are more likely to use the Internet and are more excited about technology and its benefits than people who are not parents, making mothers and fathers an increasingly important market for technology businesses.

Three-year PC upgrade cycle is history: The three-year upgrade cycle for PCs is increasingly becoming a myth, according to market researcher Gartner. [...] Bottom line: The worldwide PC industry is on pace for PC shipments to reach 127.3 million units in 2002, an anemic 1.8 percent increase over 2001 shipments, said Gartner. So far, 2003 is shaping up to be a better year, but growth will still be about 7 percent--off the high double-digit pace of previous years. In Gartner's study, PCs are defined as desktops, notebooks and servers priced under $25,000.

Homeland Security's IT dilemma: Like it or not, the proposed Department of Homeland Security firmly establishes Washington's central role in computer and network security.

Nokia's New Phone Straddles Two Worlds

Linus Torvalds answers 10 goofy questions 9) I've heard that Linux causes cancer. How many hours a week can it safely be used? Torvalds: That's a filthy lie. Besides, it was only in rats and has not been reproduced in humans.

An interview with Dr. Jakob Nielsen, usability expert Digital Web: What are the common problems of today? What past common problems have become scarce today? JN: Trust is a huge problem. Users are justifiably very cynical about their privacy and about the extent to which they can trust Web sites.

Tablet PC: First Impressions So, one day in, my verdict: I can't see ever buying a portable laptop that isn't a convertible - the benefits are too great for me. It's a Tablet PC, not a Pen PC, and not a Clamshell PC, and that's a win. While these are clearly still basically a version 1 or 2, they are still very useful.

Inventor of home satellite dish lived at the edge of the future: Henry Taylor Howard was a man for the 21st century. He was among the first to hear transmissions from Sputnik, created the first home satellite dish and led several experiments to explore the moon and planets. In addition to his engineering wizardry, he flew planes, sailed ships, launched companies and recently built a helicopter from a kit.

Comdex organizer says it may file for bankruptcy

Sinal dos tempos? WorldCom's New Chief Passed Up No. 3 Job at Microsoft: Michael D. Capellas, a former president of Hewlett-Packard, had agreed to become the company's new chairman, chief executive and president. Until early Thursday, Mr. Capellas was considering a competing offer to become the No.3 executive at Microsoft, according to people close to the search process. Those people said that soon after Mr. Capellas was reported on Monday to be in the running for the WorldCom job, Microsoft approached Mr. Capellas with a lucrative offer to become its president and chief operating officer. In that position, Mr. Capellas would have reported to Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, and Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive.

Hacker law: Hackings, viruses and unwanted intrusions into your PC are illegal, right? Well, yes - and no.

Cybercops need a hack warrant: A federal judge has ruled that law enforcement officials went too far when they tried to use evidence gathered by a known hacker to convict someone of possessing child pornography.

Dot-Mil Hacker's Download Mistake

Study: Linux' Security Problems Outstrip Microsoft's

Study: Chat rooms prime hunting sites for spammers For Bulk E-Mailer, Pestering Millions Offers Path to Profit FTC Charges Three Spammers, Settles With Four Others

Study Makes Less of Hack Threat: Despite the panting about "cyberterrorists," and despite the scare mongering about venomous hackers preying on fragile federal networks, attacks on government computer systems are declining worldwide, according to a recently released report.

House considers jailing hackers for life: A last-minute addition to a proposal for a Department of Homeland Security would punish malicious computer hackers with life in prison.

Microsoft freebies turn India gov. against open-source: Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates had been handing out so many freebies to India's federal and state governments in the last three days that talk of open-source software had started annoying government officials. [...] [Richard] Stallman, who founded the Boston-based Free Software Foundation in 1985 to promote the development of freely distributed software, urged Indians to spurn free gifts from Microsoft and adopt free, open-source software. [...] “You should not make accusations against a company because it is successful,” countered Vivek Kulkarni, information secretary of Karnataka state, after Gates arrived in Bangalore and announced Wednesday that the state capital would be given free Web-building software to provide online information and services to city residents. “We are a poor country. We cannot develop operating systems and platforms on our own,” Kulkarni said. [...] “Proprietary software companies hand out free copies for the same reason that cigarette companies give sample packs to college kids -- to encourage addiction,” Stallman said during his Nov. 1 visit.

El PSOE exigirá al Gobierno la creación del nuevo dominio '.his': El Partido Socialista ha anunciado que el próximo martes defenderá en el Pleno del Senado la creación de un nuevo dominio, '.his', que pretende aglutinar a "todos los países, culturas y personas de lengua hispana como forma de aprovechar mejor su potencialidad"

Admitida a trámite la demanda de la AI contra Ya.com por las cláusulas de sus contratos de ADSL: El objetivo de la iniciativa es "clarificar los contratos, esclarecer las peticiones y llamar la atención sobre la situación del ADSL en España", afirmó Domingo. Asimismo, se quejó de que la actual situación, en la que las operadoras son "intermediarios" entre usuarios y Telefónica, "no es lógica, puesto que sólo las beneficia a ellas y estrangula el interés general". [lá como cá...]

Webs within Web boost searches: Internet search engines regularly use information about the text contained in pages and the links between pages to return relevant search results because the approach works reasonably well, but less is known about why these relationships exist. A researcher from the University of Iowa has expanded the utility of using text and links in search engines with a mathematical model that divides a large network like the Internet into small local Webs.

Congress Triples Spending for Cybersecurity: The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved a measure on Tuesday that would triple federal spending on a program to increase computer security research, sending it to the White House for final approval.

British Hacker Case Largest Ever Against U.S. Military: Gary McKinnon, 36, of London was indicted in federal courts in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday on eight counts of computer-related crimes. These included break-ins over 12 months at 92 separate U.S. military and NASA networks across 14 states, including two at the Pentagon. McKinnon also was accused of hacking the networks of six private companies and organizations. [...] McKinnon was charged in "the biggest hack of military computers ever, at least ever detected"

New Tools a Spying Boss Will Love

Managing Digital Photos: Digital photography comes with its own set of archiving problems. Microsoft, Cirius, and Lifescape want to help.

Are Tech Innovations Drying Up? The technology slump of the past two years has cost thousands of workers their jobs, decimated some companies and slowed down the economy. Will it also result in fewer innovations from America's high-tech firms?

Real-life µ-tetris

Dumb Divergence Targeting Tablet PCs: If you want to read about a dumb idea resulting from lack of coordination by sectors of the publishing industry, then this is your lucky day. Here goes: Imagine if you had to use the AOL browser to visit any newspaper's websites, but had to use Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 to visit any magazine's sites, but had to use Opera 6 to visit any broadcaster's sites, but had to use Netscape 6 to visit any e-commerce site. OK, that's far fetched, but something similar is really happening in regard to the new Tablet PCs

Text scam warning for consumers: Scams using e-mail, text messaging and faxes are increasingly ripping off consumers, the UK Government has warned.

Her picture became a porn ad: “Don’t put your picture online” was a common warning in the early days of the Internet. Sound paranoid in the era of online dating? Don’t tell that to Laura, who 18 months ago put up an online personals ad for one month. Since then, her photo has been stolen and used in dozens of fake personals ads soliciting hard-core sex and pornography. “You have no control,” she said. “What’s hardest is you have no idea who’s seen it. What if someone really believes those things?”

New Microsoft software sparks privacy fears: Computer experts say the new “Palladium” software being developed by Microsoft could be misused to gain unprecedented access to personal computers and endanger freedom of speech.

New flaws could spawn more Net attacks: A network protection firm [...] revealed three new flaws in the software on which the Internet's domain name system relies.

New Zealand: 'Duty' of telecoms to assist snooping: The Telecommunications (Interception Capability) Bill, tabled in Parliament yesterday, will mean telephone and internet service providers will be legally obliged to ensure their systems are capable of isolating and intercepting suspect emails and mobile calls while still protecting the privacy of others.

Bill Gates says most of his inheritance will go to charity: Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, the world's wealthiest man, said Tuesday he will pass a sizeable portion of his wealth to charity and not his three children. [...] But Gates added: "Certainly I'll make sure they are taken care of in a sense that they can live a very comfortable life."

Virus: Un tout nouveau magazine en couleur sur l’incommensurable univers de l’informatique et des nouvelles technologies.

Euro thought police criminalize impure speech on line: The Council of Europe has amended its cybercrime treaty to devise criminal penalties for those who dare to express unpopular ideas for public consumption with any manner of computer equipment. The measure specifically targets so-called 'racist and xenophobic material', and would apply to any controversial Web-site, or even a mean-spirited posting to a BBS or an e-mail newsletter.

Patterns for Personal Web Sites

Google Search: http

Ghostzilla: The Camouflage Web Browser For Total Screen Privacy

Banish Foreign Language Email Spam

Video games no longer child's play: Sony Australia's sales figures for the PlayStation 2 reveal that males aged between 18 and 40 make up 60 per cent of the lucrative computer game market. Games market analyst Phil Burnham said that men aged between 18 and 35 were the main market for game designers and manufacturers.

Maybe It Is the Magic Kingdom: Last week, Disney announced a modest milestone - its Internet properties are profitable. The company doesn't report the results of its Internet properties as a group, so Disney did not provide any profit figure when it reported fourth-quarter earnings. [...] What Disney learned and other companies are discovering is that it's best to abandon a one-size-fits-all approach to the Web.

Three New 'Net Domains Could Be Added Next Year, but those alternatives likely will be reserved for specific online communities.

Computer Break-Ins: Your Right to Know: California law now demands that the public be informed when government or corporate databases are breached. It's about time

New Web Portal Takes Aim at Yahoo: The businessmen who salvaged the Excite Network from one of the Internet's biggest bankruptcies are launching a new Web site targeted at disaffected Yahoo! users. "Yahoo! is Toast" is the theme of their aggressive new advertising campaign introducing MyWay.com, a new online portal that replicates many of Yahoo's popular features without ads, fees and intrusive privacy policies.

Microsoft memo: Linux fight backfiring MS admits its Linux-bashing jihad is a failure

How to 0wn the Internet in Your Spare Time: The ability of attackers to rapidly gain control of vast numbers of Internet hosts poses an immense risk to the overall security of the Internet. Once subverted, these hosts can not only be used to launch massive denial of service floods, but also to steal or corrupt great quantities of sensitive information, and confuse and disrupt use of the network in more subtle ways. We present an analysis of the magnitude of the threat. Researchers predict worm that eats the Internet in 15 minutes

Making the Macintosh is an online project documenting the history of the Macintosh computer.

Bajar el precio del ADSL tendría un efecto "distorsionador" sobre la competencia, opina el Gobierno El Gobierno considera que "no cabe en principio" la adopción de medidas encaminadas a imponer precios finales para las conexiones a Internet mediante las líneas digitales asimétricas (ADSL) inferiores a los fijados actualmente por el mercado - 39 euros para usuarios y 24 euros para los mayoristas -, puesto que tendría un efecto "distorsionador del marco de competencia concebido para estos servicios".

Are Macs Virus-Proof? According to mi2g's analysis, the Mac OS "suffered only 31 overt digital attacks, i.e., 0.05 percent of all attacks in 2002," in spite of the fact that Apple holds about 3 percent of the global computer market.

[O problema da falta de banda larga:] Angry Janesville Man Barbecues Slow Modem: Janesville police responded to a smoke complaint around 1 a.m. Tuesday and found a man barbecuing his computer modem. The 39-year-old man told police the modem was operating too slowly, and he decided grilling it might make it dial up faster.

Antenas de telemóvel à margem da lei: O país tem 8467 antenas de telemóveis registadas pelo regulador das comunicações, mas as autarquias suspeitam que o total seja superior, a maior parte das quais ilegais. Antenna Safety Violations Costs ATT Wireless: AT&T Wireless Services would prefer to collect $117,000 from the Federal Communications Commission for voice or data services, but the carrier caught a fine of that sum for safety violations on some of its antenna structures. [...] The problems include failure to register, light, and paint antenna structures, and failure to post antenna structure registration numbers at the base of antenna structures.

No content, no takers: The trouble is, why should the majority of residential internet users be excited by broadband? Why do they need fast, always-on internet access? As yet there is no compelling reason for them.

The net crusader: He used to write lyrics for the Grateful Dead. Now John Perry Barlow wants to stop global corporations colonising cyberspace

What's Dot and What's Not: Domain Name Registration Scams Notices and Offers in .BIZ

Still a long way from fulfilling the Lisbon objective: Europe is not investing enough in knowledge: The Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden and Finland) are in the lead, with investment levels and growth distinctly higher than in the USA. A second group, made up of Greece, Portugal and Ireland, has built up strong momentum which could see them catch up at a very rapid pace. By contrast, most European countries are around the European average (and, therefore, lagging behind the USA), while certain big countries like Italy or Spain urgently need to make an extra effort.

Comissão de dados faz recomendações... sobre a privacidade no local de trabalho. [ver: O tratamento de dados em centrais telefónicas, o controlo do e-mail e do acesso à Internet]

Pac-Man Going To Movies

uDrive Me Crazy: BMW's iDrive cockpit-of-the-future concept has taken some heat since the 745i debuted. We rode shotgun with an interface design expert to see what works, what doesn't.

Amazon.co.uk unveils free delivery offer: In time for the Xmas rush...

Nokia's Games Go Global: Phone maker has signed up one million players for an around-the-world interactive game. "Games will be the next big thing in mobility," said Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president of Nokia Mobile Phones

Cordless keyboard woes continue: The Stavanger men who discovered that data input on a cordless keyboard also appeared on a neighbor's computer - supposedly far out of range in another building - have had their equipment replaced. Nothing has changed, and the manufacturer is worried.

Microsoft calls 'foul' on OS vulnerability data: The report, a summary of which was released to the public by Mi2g, attributed 44% of the software vulnerabilities announced in the first 10 months of 2002 to Microsoft's Windows operating system and 19% to the open-source Linux operating system. By comparison, the company attributed only 1.9% to Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS.

Minister calls for new website to help cut unnecessary government spending: The outgoing Dutch Minister of Finance, Hans Hoogervorst, has come up with a novel idea to fight financial waste of government bodies. Mr. Hoogervorst has called on his ministry to set up a special website, where citizens can lodge complaints against wasteful government bureaucracy, and inefficient and ineffective working practices, and propose money saving measures.

More than 600 million people have Net access: 605.6 million people had Internet access at the end of September, up from 580.7 million in May 2002.

Magazines to publish on tablet PC: Six major magazine publishers, including Forbes and the New Yorker, plan to don a new image for tablet PCs, creating digital facsimiles of their periodicals and pushing the fold on Web advertising.

Los europeos utilizan más los SMSs que el email: Los analistas de Gartner G2 aseguran que los celulares ofrecen ahora más del doble del alcance que tienen los PCs conectados a la Red en Europa, ya que hay más personas que utilizan los mensajes de texto (SMSs) de sus móviles que el email. El floreciente negocio de la telefonía móvil se ha ensombrecido en 2002 por las ingentes deudas en que han incurrido las telecos y las dudas y retrasos que rodean la tercera generación de móviles. Gartner G2 advierte que la industria continua obsesionada con el UMTS y ha olvidado al consumidor.

Microsoft's new open-source woes Fighting Microsoft the Open-Source Way: Apple, IBM, and Sun have opened up their software code to the public in their battle against Redmond. It just might work.

Patient dies in robot-aided surgery: Such robots are considered a major surgical breakthrough, but something went wrong.

Honeypots: Tracking Hackers: What's interesting with honeypots is the fact that they began to be widely used only in the past 2 years or so. I think that the majority of the people heard about honeypots thanks to the Honeynet Project and Lance Spitzner, whose excellent "Know Your Enemy" whitepaper series became a sort of a bestseller among the security community. And now, the man that started it all has written a book about it. Available for download is chapter 4 entitled "The Value of Honeypots".

Three arrested in Ericsson spying scandal: Telecommunications group Ericsson was caught up in an international espionage scandal yesterday after Swedish security police arrested three people for allegedly handing over its secrets to a foreign power. [...] The Swedish authorities have refused to name either the foreign power it believes was involved or any of the three Swedes arrested - although it said the trio face serious charges of either espionage or industrial espionage. They said the investigation was at a sensitive stage and they could not release more information.

Génération Haut débit: En septembre 2002, 20 % des internautes connectés à leur domicile disposent d’une liaison Haut Débit (ADSL ou Câble). Cette proportion ne cesse de croître. Qui sont ces internautes? Quelles sont leurs attitudes et comportements?

Bill Summary & Status: To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming and censorship.

One of key Net computers moved: Verisign takes defensive action after last month’s attack Experts have made an important change to the 13 computer servers that manage global Internet traffic, separating two of them to help better defend against the type of attack that occurred last month.

Microsoft launches Tablet PC: analysts have offered dim projections on early sales. Gartner says that portables running the Tablet PC operating system would account for a mere 1 percent - or about 425,000 units - of worldwide notebook shipments next year. Analyst IDC predicted U.S. shipments of 575,000 tablets out of an estimated 13 million notebooks. [aposto que se vão enganar, excepto pelo ainda elevado preço?... É o primeiro equipamento informático que se pode levar para a casa de banho para ler os jornais e tomar notas...] Can the Tablet PC Hit the Mainstream?: I don't see these first Tablets as mainstream products. Instead, I see them catching on with gadget freaks, people in business or college who deeply desire to take notes on a PC instead of paper, and those with large amounts of on-screen reading to do on a regular basis.

Europa quiere patentar el software: La propuesta, en teoría, pretende regularizar las patentes de programación que ya está concediendo la Oficina Europea de patentes (EPO, con sus siglas en inglés). “Las patentes tienen buena prensa”, reconoce Jesús M.González Barahona, profesor de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid y coordinador de Proinnova. “Si en Europa no se da luz verde a las patentes, parece que no se quiere promover la innovación”. Sin embargo, normalizar la situación puede introducir al software en un peligroso campo de batalla.

MS Palladium: A must or a menace? Microsoft developers touted the company's upcoming Palladium architecture as technology that would enhance privacy, stymie piracy and increase a corporation's control over its computers.

windows1984.com: The aim of this website is to draw attention to issues, particularly those related to personal computer use, which threaten to bring us closer to the dystopian nightmare of George Orwell's novel 1984 - O Ano Que Ainda Não Acabou

Money Wired: What happens when a gambling town falls hard for the computer network? Hacker crooks. Megajackpot slots. Cutting-edge surveillance software. And that's just the start.

Patent issues could stymie Web standard: A Web standards body is close to approving a key Web services specification, but concerns about patent rights may hold up the process.

El ministro de Ciencia y Tecnología reconoce el fracaso del plan Info XXI

Feeling lethargic? Blame the PC: Prolonged daily computer use can make you sore and sap your strength, energy and motivation.

MIT's Superarchive: Every year MIT researchers create at least 10,000 papers, data files, images, collections of field notes, and audio and video clips. [...] In September the Institute launched DSpace, a Web-based institutional repository where faculty and researchers can save their intellectual output and share it with their colleagues around the world and for centuries to come. The result of a two-year collaboration of the MIT Libraries and Hewlett-Packard, DSpace is built on open-source software and is available to anyone free of charge. But it’s even more important to note that many believe this groundbreaking effort will fundamentally change the way scholars disseminate their research findings.

Website contest to tempt teen girls: The UK Government is teaming up with the music industry in an attempt to entice young girls into technology. ITbeat is a nationwide initiative, designed to encourage girls aged 11- 15 to rethink their attitudes to careers in information technology.

Hacking syndicates threaten banking: The number of organized hacking syndicates targeting financial institutions around the world is growing at a disturbingly fast rate. And so is the number of banks willing to pay these high-tech extortionists hush money to protect their reputations, according to a security expert at The World Bank. Hackers stick California city with $30,000 phone bill: A number of calls were placed to the Philippines over a five-day period in July -- and they weren't made by city workers. AT&T investigators confirmed that hackers broke into the city's telephone system to make the bogus calls before they were detected and cut off.

Holograms in Motion: The newest 3-D video displays herald an interactive future for imaging.

Bill Gates Views What He's Sown in Libraries: Bill Gates predicted in 1995 that the Internet would help rural people stay put, in part because they would have the same advantages as city slickers in the virtual world. [...] There is scant evidence, for example, that the wiring of rural America has done anything to make Mr. Gates's prediction about population flight come true. The new computers may even be aiding the exodus from rural America, as people go online to find jobs far away.

Mitnick's 'Lost Chapter' Found: A missing chapter from hacker Kevin Mitnick's recent book has been published on the Internet.

Bank error exposes e-mail addresses: Bank of the West exposed the e-mail addresses of thousands of its online banking customers Monday, in a mistake it blamed on "human error."

German secret service taps phones, bills buggees

MS settlement rotten with loopholes

Citing Security Risks, U. of California at Santa Barbara Bans Windows 2000 on Residential Network: In an effort to protect its residential computer network from worms, viruses, and other threats [...] The Microsoft Corporation, however, says the problems the Santa Barbara campus has experienced are more the result of the way its network is configured than of any flaws in the operating systems.

Digital Library of Information Science and Technology

Scramble it!: Encrypting data on hard drives + Encrypting e-mail

Best Websites for Business: Keeping Informed; Finding and Filling Jobs; Checking Competitors; Buying Gifts; Wasting Time; Managing Your Portfolio; Traveling; Tracking Trends; Managing a Small Business; Mastering Your Gear

FTC: Where Spam Goes Off to Die [The Federal Trade Commission] now has the most complete spam database in the world, a collection of over 20 million missives containing the solutions to all human wants and woes. [...] The FTC now gets around 70,000 forwarded spams a day. Last year, they received about 40,000 pieces a day. Three years ago, that mailbox received about 4,000 missives daily, and in 1998 the entire year's take was fewer than 100 spams.

3D Model Search Engine

Searching for a search that works [how metadata works:] The prescription for search success: 1. Identify your goal. 2. Define a common language. 3. Choose the right technology. 4. Process, process, process.

TV Linux Alliance is a consortium of technology suppliers to cable, satellite and telecommunication network operators who wish to support the deployment of Linux-based digital set-top boxes capable of interactive television applications and services.

World Wide Web packed full of trash – official [in finance, health and comparison prices sites]

Cordless keyboard wrote on neighbor's computer

Gaming Industry Serious Business: In-Stat/MDR estimated that the game console market reached revenues of nearly $7.4 billion in 2001 with 31.8 million units shipped, and Strategy Analytics predicts global shipments of 41.9 million units in 2002. Sony's PlayStation 2 (PS2) accounts for 63 percent of sales, followed by Nintendo's GameCube with 21 percent and Microsoft's XBox with 16 percent. By the end of 2002, 72 percent of global cumulative shipments will be PS2 systems, compared to 16 percent GameCube and 12 percent XBox.

The Worst Coders in Washington: American Open Technology Consortium has researched the sponsors of eight bad Internet laws and compiled a list of their most prolific campaign contributors. These laws were written and sponsored by a tiny handful of lawmakers, backed by a tiny handful of wealthy financiers. These bad coders and their backers have done more damage to computing, the Internet and freedom than all the virus authors, spammers and crackers combined.

Monday is busiest day on the NetAccording to the data, 15.34 percent of worldwide Internet traffic occurs on the first workday of the week. Tuesday is the second most popular day to go online with 15.16 percent of global Internet traffic. Around 14.57 percent of Net traffic occurs on Wednesday, while Thursday and Friday account for 14.57 percent and 14.43 percent respectively.

Non-English speakers dominant online: After English speakers, the next biggest language group online are Chinese speakers who comprise 10.8 percent of the world’s Internet users. [...] Portuguese speakers account for three percent of all Internet users

Govt. To Hide Identities Of Hacking Victims: Senior law enforcement officials assured technology executives Thursday that the government will increasingly work to keep secret the names of companies that become victims to major hacking crimes, along with any sensitive corporate disclosures that could prove embarrassing. The effort, described at a cybercrime conference in northern Virginia, is designed to encourage businesses to report such attacks and build public confidence in Internet security. Officials promised to use legal mechanisms, such as protective orders and sealed court filings, to shield corporate hacking victims from bad publicity.

FBI Finds Source of Internet Attacks: Last month's denial of service attacks against Internet's core servers have been traced to computers in U.S. and Korea.

The Myth of Cyberterrorism: There are many ways terrorists can kill you - computers aren't one of them.

Do You Copy? Imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery. Theft is. Or rather, copying. Because copying is usually not theft, and not necessarily bad even when it is, it needs to be stated loud and clear in these loud and unclear times: Copying is a Good Thing.

The Miscrosoft Decision: Microsoft gets settlement nod; states could appeal A federal judge largely approves a proposed settlement in the years-old antitrust case. The government praises the decision, while critics say the case should have looked at what Microsoft's up to now. But it may not be completely over just yet; the remaining states could appeal, and European officials are continuing a separate investigation. Is It Over Yet? European Union Still Pursuing MS Law Is Better, But World Is Worse Machiavelli meets Microsoft: When it came to her final word on Microsoft, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly turned to "The Prince," Niccolo Machiavelli's famous Renaissance treatise on power politics, for direction. Quoting the Florentine philosopher as she issued her landmark antitrust ruling, Kollar-Kotelly gave Microsoft most of what it wanted. Yet at the same time, she didn't rely on the software maker's good intentions to make sure the decision will stick. But some shut their Windows: Luis Millan Vazquez de Miguel, a college professor turned politician, is succeeding where multibillion-dollar multinational corporations have failed. He is managing to unseat Microsoft Corp. as the dominant player in the software industry, at least in his little part of the world. Vazquez de Miguel is the minister of education, science and technology in Extremadura, a rural western region of Spain made up of expanses of olive trees and small towns and villages with a total of 1.1 million inhabitants. In April, the government began an unorthodox campaign to convert all the area’s computer systems, in government offices, businesses and homes, from the Windows operating system to Linux, a free alternative. Already, Vazquez de Miguel said, more than 10,000 desktop machines have been switched, with 100,000 more scheduled for conversion in the next year.

Future Hacking: How Vulnerable Is the Net?

A New Cryptography Uses the Quirks of Photon Streams: A start-up company, MagiQ Technologies, plans to announce today a cryptogaphy — or code — system that uses a technology called quantum key distribution to thwart eavesdropping on a fiber optic communication channel. The company, based in New York, says it has a working model of its system and will have a commercial version available in the second half of next year.

Free thinkers: Can free source-code stop Microsoft? Focus on what you do best. This age-old strategy has worked well for RealNetworks, Microsoft's main competitor in multimedia software for the Internet. Now, the smaller Seattle-based firm is trying a novel way to contain the software giant. On October 29th, it released the underlying recipe, or source-code, of its RealPlayer software and will soon do the same for its other programs—giving away a big chunk of its intellectual property.

Cape Verde Seeking Technology Partnership: Authorities of Angola and Cape Verde this month started preparing a project for cooperation in technological field towards boosting bilateral relations.

First victim of broadband price war: The broadband price war in the UK has claimed its first casualty with the low-cost start-up ET Global Solutions going bust. The company, which was one of the first in the UK to offer broadband services for less than £20 a month, has ceased trading and closed down its website. Its collapse has raised doubts about whether cut-price operators offering low-cost broadband services can survive.

Anatomy of a Search Engine: Inside Google

Why Can't Hackers Be Stopped?

The Google gods: Does search engine's power threaten Web's independence? "When you're No. 4 that plays well; when you fall off, you tend to lose phone traffic. And if you don't have the right relationship with Google to find out what you could have done wrong, you're out of luck," [Patrick Ahern, Data Recovery Group' president] said, noting that this can have a dangerous domino effect. "If you're not ranked in Google, Yahoo won't list you. It's incestuous."

'Grand Theft Auto' Video Game Riles Critics: If you wanted to buy a copy of Vice City now, forget it. You would have had to call months ago. The new Grand Theft Auto video game is sold out nearly everywhere. Rockstar, the maker of Vice City, has learned one lesson: Simulated crime pays — and it pays well. The game sold 4 million copies before it was even released — and an industry expert says it could eventually sell 10 million copies, bringing in $400 million. Compared to a top-grossing movie like Jackass, which brought in $22.8 million on its opening weekend, Grand Theft Auto has already earned blockbuster status: $160 million in sales before it even hit stores.