The Web's Missing Links

Text software spots intruders: Researchers from the University of California at Davis have taken an unusual tack in anomaly detection by adapting text classification techniques to intrusion detection. Their initial results suggest that the technique could produce an anomaly detection system with a reasonable error rate.

Could Micropayments Add Up to Real Money for ISPs [and content providers]? ISPs connect subscribers to the Internet, but many are still searching for a way to make money from the content that traverses these connections. An Austrian developer may have the solution for turning content into commerce. [...] The system relies on an ISP billing its users, taking a cut, and passing on the rest of the money to content providers.

Google: What's it Worth to You? After six months of testing, Google this morning publicly launched a new paid search service to help users who don't have the tech savvy or time to perform Web searches of their own. [E não, não é o Cookin' With Google mas o Google Answers]

IBM talks up "computing on demand"

Amazon.com set to open clothes store

How Does the Future Happen? Instant books, smart price tags and 3-D television: guessing the shape of things to come

The Day the Net Nearly Choked: On Oct. 21 a cyber-attack threatened to overwhelm it. Here's what happened and what's needed to make sure it doesn't happen again

Are journalists too eager to side with privacy over free speech?

GameMarketWatch.com - Insight for the Electronic Entertainment Industry

Before There Was E-Mail: Forwarding Jokes Trough History

The Death Of The Internet: How Industry Intends To Kill The 'Net As We Know It

How Intel Took Moore's Law From Idea to Ideology: Gordon Moore and Andy Grove reflect on Intel's beginnings.

L'Internet à portée de mains: Se serrer la pince à 4.800 kilomètres de distance? La prouesse est désormais possible grâce aux travaux de deux laboratoires spécialisés dans la réalité virtuelle et les interfaces haptiques. Mel Slater, chercheur à l'University College of London (UCL), est entré dimanche en «contact tactile» avec Mandayam Srinivasan, son collègue du Massachusets Institute of technology (MIT). L'opération s'est effectuée lors d'une expérience donnée pour la première fois en public la veille de la conférence Internet 2, qui s'est tenue à Los Angeles jusqu'à hier.

Is Linux the Key to Securing Cyberspace? Open source security options considered, but the feds say they won't play favorites. Defending the use of open source: A new report reveals just how much the U.S. Department of Defense depends on open-source software and recommends steps to ensure that open source is recognized and accepted.

Fairplay - Campaign for cheaper videogames

Microsoft's media monopoly: Bill Gates wants to control the delivery of digital entertainment into your home. And according to a lawsuit brought by a pioneering software company, he's prepared to crush anything that gets in his way. [...] Richard Lang is suing Microsoft because, he says, the company violated Burst.com's patents covering video delivery on the Internet and engaged in "unfair competition" to prevent Burst from gaining a foothold in the market. Lang says that in the late 1990s, as software companies battled each other for dominance in the emerging world of digital media on the Internet, Microsoft colluded with its main competitor, RealNetworks, in an effort to prevent Burst and other firms from entering the market. And then, after it had sufficiently weakened Burst, Microsoft "stole" its intellectual property, says Lang, incorporating in its latest Windows Media Player the video-streaming technology that Burst had developed -- and had shared with Microsoft under nondisclosure agreements -- during more than a decade of research. Microsoft denies any wrongdoing in the case and has vowed to fight Burst's allegations. Since 1998, Microsoft has been named in dozens of patent-infringement lawsuits, and the company -- which has lost almost none of them -- has suggested that many of the plaintiffs are failed ventures whose claims are at least partly motivated by the attractive target posed by Microsoft and its $39 billion in cash. Burst.com is one such failed venture. The company is still around, but its prospects are far slimmer than they once were, and the main reason for that, Lang claims, is Microsoft's bullying.

My Way No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding. My Way has partnered with Google to feature the world's best search engine along with our full portal offering...all without banners, pop-ups, video ads, direct marketing and privacy concerns. (And a lot more.)

The 20 Worst Games of All Time 20: Extreme Sports With the Berenstein Bears 19: Bible Adventures 18: Kriss Kross: Make My Video 17: Bubsy 3D 16: Bad Street Brawler 15: Total Recall 14: Rapjam Volume One 13: AIRCARS 12: Night Trap 11: Heroes of the Lance 10: Revolution X 9: Custer's Revenge 8: White Men Can't Jump 7: Superman 64 6: Legend of Zelda: Wand of Gamelon 5: Virtuoso 4: Captain Novolin 3: Fight For Life 2: Club Drive 1: E.T. The Extraterrestrial

The Defining Moments In Digital Culture: The Top 10 defining moments on the web, along with five runners-up. 1. A day of terror: The web comes of age (September 11, 2001) 2. First MP3 player released online: The world of private property will never be the same (1997) 3. The Slashdot Effect: Everyday netizens revolutionize newsgathering (Happens anytime Slashdot links to your site) 4. - Hotline fires up: Peer-to-peer becomes a new cultural glue (Fall 1996) 5. Suck.com launches: A thousand weblogs are born (August 1995) 6. Henry Blodget picks a stock: The dotcom boom begins (December 16, 1998) 7. Jenni on Letterman: Webcamming comes of age (July 31, 1998) 8. The Columbine shootings: A geek backlash begins (April 20, 1999) 9. TROOPS debuts: The web creates its first hit indie film (February 1998) 10. Cyberselfish: John Perry Barlow proves the digital elite are political morons (February 8th, 1996) The Runners-Up: The Pam and Tommy Lee videotape (1997) Doom series launches: Putting the "space" in cyberspace (December 10, 1993) All Your Base Are Belong To Us - and all your internet, too (February 2001) The faster computer that never existed: Distributed computing cracks the RSA code (October 22, 1997) Melissa: The birth of do-it-yourself, lame-ass viruses (March 1999)

Do Deadly Games Lead to Violent Acts? Was the FBI desperate in its sniper probe, or is there indeed some strange relationship between the video-game world and this violence? Regardless of what that answer might be, the news that the FBI searched video-game arcades and Internet sites has not pleased those who play or make the games.

Tools coming for connecting information One such product will make its debut later this week. It's called Grokker, from a Sausalito-based start-up called Groxis (www.groxis.com). The company's Web site touts a ``new face of computing,'' a marketing exaggeration, but it's fair to say that this product puts data in front of the user in a fascinating way. A blast from the past is an upcoming program called "Find'', from Bill Gross' Idealab. Gross was responsible for one of the 1980s best utilities, the wonderful Magellan software that indexed hard disks and then found things so fast that it almost seemed to read your mind. Well, think of Find as Magellan 2.0.

Want Bills by Snail Mail? It Might Cost You Money For years, businesses have cajoled customers to view their bills online, mostly by offering cash, gift certificates, sweepstakes prizes and other incentives in return. A tough economy, though, has led to an even more aggressive stance. In a move to cut administrative costs and save on paper and postage, some have started billing customers a few extra dollars a month for paper statements.

Securing the cloud: Digital security, once the province of geeks, is now everyone's concern. But there is much more to the problem - or the solution - than mere technology

Roll-up TV screens to hit living rooms: Two British companies said on Monday they would join forces to become a world leader in the technology of glowing plastics, which by 2005 should yield the first roll-up computer screens and TVs.

If you had to recommend one book for a non-designer to understand our design process, what would it be? Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web

Positive picture for future phones: The future of third-generation mobile phone networks looks rosy, according to a new report. Analysis by consultancy Thinking Box predicts that 3G will be a big success. But it also warns that phone firms planning the futuristic services face a tough and lengthy task to ensure that their investment pays off. It reveals that the majority of cash generated by customers of third-generation networks will come from very familiar sources.

Microsoft piracy letter angers partners: The opening paragraphs of the letter read: "Recently you have been buying fewer copies of Microsoft Office Professional from authorised Microsoft original equipment manufacturer distributors. "We understand that competition for business is intense and that it is getting even tougher. "Some system builders try to undercut their competitors by selling and installing copies of [software], making the situation worse for those selling licensed Microsoft software." Mike Lawrence, managing director at reseller Bentpenny, said that the correspondence had left him fuming. "We have never sold any illegal software and [the letter] implies that a reduction in orders is the result of illegal copies being sold when it is actually because the market is at saturation," he explained.

the first rule of the lazy-web: "if you wait long enough, someone will write/build/design what you were thinking about"

Market forces not enough to improve security: Market forces alone are unlikely to create the necessary incentives for businesses to make significant improvements in security, according to a study published this month by the Brookings Institution.

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

Virtual Borders, Real Laws´: National governments work to tame activity on the Internet - by David Banisar, Privacy International

Woman's suit asks: who owns e-mail? In a case that could help define Internet service providers as electronic letter carriers, a Toronto woman is suing her former ISP for damages after the company withheld her e-mail messages to secure payment on her account. Nancy Carter alleges in documents filed in Federal Court that she lost a "valuable business opportunity" because Inter.net Canada Ltd. continued to take in and store her e-mails while her account was under suspension, a standard industry practice.

Guerilla marketing tactics spawn viral fears: Users could be induced into spamming all their contacts after a greeting card site decided to apply highly questionable social engineering tricks to its latest marketing campaign.

Realistic Internet Simulator

Your life in pictures: It's not just celebrities who get snapped during the course of their daily lives - as cameras get smaller, more people are documenting their everyday lives.

Encryption method getting the pictureResearchers create a new way to embed information in a digital image and extract it later with little distortion or loss of information.

Nintendo faces EU antitrust fine: European antitrust regulators next week will fine Japanese video game maker Nintendo and a number of its distributors for sales practices it employed in the mid-1990s, EU Commission sources said.

OldVersion.com because newer is not always better

Are We Living in the Golden Age of Hacking? Recent months have seen an increase in security holes and in new tools used to exploit them, expert warns.

Googlism will find out what Google.com thinks of you, your friends or anything!

Blogger hacked: Any of you who use Blogger will want to log in right now (if you can) and delete your server information and passwords. It looks like a hack is in progress that first switched many users' passwords or server information to "hacx0redbyme" or "hax0redbyme" and is now prohibiting lots of users from logging in. Tom pointed the problem out to me, and at that point it was mostly Pro users having problems, although it seems to be everyone now. Blogger has suffered a security intrusion by a "haX0r.": We have all the data that was changed backed up within a couple hours of the attack, so we can have things pretty much back to normal soon. Of course, we're assessing the situation as thoroughly as possible to make sure it doesn't happen again. Also, if you store your FTP login information in Blogger, it wouldn't hurt to change that on your server—though it is unlikely that information was accessed. Sorry for the inconvenience. Update: We have found the cause of the vulnerability and have patched it. Everything is back restored and back online with the exception of the API server and bSTATS.

No European Vacation: According to The Wall Street Journal, MSN's Internet service might have the best chance for new growth in Europe. But the Journal notes that AOL's track record in Europe has been so-so -- meaning MSN needs to tread carefully. Despite a significant market share in the U.K., France and Germany, AOL remains profitless in those markets, and AOL Europe is expected to lose around $300 million this year. But like any competitor would argue, MSN thinks its strategy will work better in Europe. One hope? Selling separate features plucked from the new version of MSN 8.0 to computer users who purchase Internet access from other companies. MSN 8.0, of course, is pitted against AOL's new 8.0.

VC funding drops to four-year low: How Industry Intends To Kill The 'Net As We Know It Venture capital investments into private start-ups plunged in the third quarter to the lowest level in more than four years, led by health care, which declined 47 percent. The fall is significant because it deflates the assumption that the venture industry had neared its bottom. The market decline in health care is also a blow to venture capitalists and other professionals who had entered the sector with hopes it might defy the woes suffered by the high-tech industry.

The Death Of The Internet: How Industry Intends To Kill The 'Net As We Know It But beyond political and press circles are another equally important development: new technologies being developed and embraced that can, in practice, transform today's open Internet into a new industry-regulated system that will prevent or discourage people from using the net for file-sharing, internet radio and video, and peer-to-peer communications. These are not merely the most popular cutting-edge applications used by young people; they also are the tools for fundamental new ways of conducting business and politics.

Berners-Lee descarta que la Red llegue a funcionar como un cerebro global: El investigador Tim Berners-Lee, que coincidió ayer en Oviedo por primera vez con el resto de los considerados 'padres' de Internet -Lawrence Roberts, Vinton Cerf y Robert Kahn-, descartó que la Red pueda llegar a funcionar como un «cerebro global» y dijo ver «muy lejano» el día en el que los ordenadores puedan dar órdenes a sus usuarios. Los 'padres' de Internet sostienen que aún vivimos en la etapa "pre-web": Internet se enfrenta a tres desafíos: aumentar la seguridad, fiabilidad y confidencialidad de la información. Así de explícitos se han mostrado los estadounidenses Lawrence Roberts, Robert Kahn y Vinton Cerf, y el británico Tim Berners-Lee, considerados mundialmente como los 'padres' de la Red.

The Palladium Paradox: we have everything to fear about the next operating system out of Redmond. When Microsoft announced its entry into the “trusted computing” arena in June, the requisite witticism within the IT industry was that putting “Microsoft” next to “trusted” is an oxymoron. Four months later, many smirks have disappeared as the plans progress and the true significance of code-name Palladium becomes ever more clear. The software, which is slated for future versions of the Windows operating system, looks on paper to be an all-good system for increasing privacy and security. The consequences of its deployment in the real world, however, will likely be decreased user control over the contents of their computers and a serious increase in Microsoft’s stranglehold on desktops.

Mitch Kapor's impossible dream: My raising of the white flag came as I learned about Mitch Kapor's ambitious plan for a open-source "Interpersonal Information Manager." If this ever becomes ready for prime time, I plan to offer my heartiest congratulations, as there can't ever be enough software diversity. Truth be told, however, I think Kapor is too late to make much of a difference. [ver Software idea may be just crazy enough to work]

Letter: Free Software Hurts U.S.: An attack on the software license behind the Linux operating system has stirred up a free software controversy in Washington. Earlier this week, three members of the House of Representatives, Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Jim Davis (D-Fla.), sent a note to 74 Democrats in Congress attacking Linux's GNU General Public License (GPL) as a threat to America's "innovation and security." The note urged members to support a letter written by Reps. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and Jim Turner (D-Texas) to Richard Clarke, who heads the board in charge of hammering out U.S. cybersecurity policy. Davis and Turner's letter asks that the plan explicitly reject "licenses that would prevent or discourage commercial adoption of promising cybersecurity technologies developed through federal R&D." There's only one problem. Tom Davis and Jim Turner say their letter has absolutely nothing to do with open source or the GPL. Congressman Criticized For Attacking Free Software Movement: Washington Rep. Adam Smith, whose biggest contributor is Microsoft, is blasted by head of a House technology committee.

Can you trust your computer? By Richard Stallman Who should your computer take its orders from? Most people think their computers should obey them, not obey someone else. With a plan they call "trusted computing," large media corporations (including the movie companies and record companies), together with computer companies such as Microsoft and Intel, are planning to make your computer obey them instead of you. Proprietary programs have included malicious features before, but this plan would make it universal.

microsoft Internet Destroyer 4.0

El Gobierno estudia poner en marcha un sistema de e-mail ciudadano: Alfredo Timermans, secretario de Estado de Comunicación, anunció que entre los proyectos que el Gobierno estudia poner en marcha se encuentra un sistema de correo electrónico para mantener informados a los ciudadanos.

New Refrigerator Surfs Web, Takes Dictation, Makes Ice

Bush urges ban on "morphed" porn: President Bush warned parents of the perils the Internet may hold for their children on Wednesday and urged Congress to outlaw "morphed," or virtual, child pornography. Speaking in the Presidential Hall in the White House complex, Bush described undercover police as "true patriots." "The House passed a bill which makes it illegal for child pornographers to disseminate obscene, computer-generated images of children," Bush said. "It's an important piece of legislation. The Senate needs to act soon. The Senate needs to get moving and join the House in providing our prosecutors with the tools necessary to help shut down this obscenity, this crime." Bush warned that: "Every day, millions of children log on to the Internet, and every day we learn more about the evil of the world that has crept into it. In a single year, one in four children between the ages of 10 and 17 is voluntarily--involuntarily exposed to pornography. That's one in four children."

Privacy lessons from Europe: Pushed by supporters as a model for the U.S., Europe's tough Internet privacy regulations have come under fire--from surprising sources. Indeed, it came as a surprise when Austria, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom--countries not generally critical of government intervention--told the European Commission (EC) that there needs to be "a better balance" between individual privacy and the free flow of information.

Google excluding controversial sites: Google, the world's most popular search engine, has quietly deleted more than 100 controversial sites from some search result listings.

Portals - Know What You're Getting Into Why and What Is a Portal? The Evolution of Portals

Airborne computer mouse unveiled: Device could help those whose wrists hurt The difference is, this one's airborne. Meaning, like all optical mice, it doesn't need a desktop mouse pad. But it also doesn't need a desk.

Group Says Let Telecoms Fail - and Quickly Forget the regulatory rules that would, or would not, allow the Baby Bells to cut Internet service providers out of the DSL business. Forget the proposals to put the Bells on equal footing with the cable companies offering high speed connections. Forget Tauzin-Dingell. According to a group of Internet analysts and business executives, the answer is failure. In a Tuesday letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell, the group urges the FCC to resist telephone company efforts tactics to "prop up businesses that technological progress has made obsolete." Just let the telecoms fail and "fail fast," the letter urges. The 44 signatories, led by independent telecommunications analyst David Isenberg, claim Internet-based technologies are subsuming the value embodied in the traditional telecommunications networks. According to the group, "This is causing the immediate obsolescence of the vertically integrated, circuit-based telephony industry of 126 years vintage. [Telephone company] bonds used to purchase now-obsolete infrastructure assets have become (or are inexorably becoming) bad debt." Calling the current telecom troubles "not a disaster, but a natural event," the letter says a "revolution in productivity and human benefit as big as the agricultural and industrial revolution" could result.

ID Chip's Controversial Approval: A surprise decision by the Food and Drug Administration permits the use of implantable ID chips in humans, despite an FDA investigator's recent public reservations about the devices. The FDA sent chip manufacturer Applied Digital Solutions a letter stating that the agency would not regulate the VeriChip if it was used for "security, financial and personal identification or safety applications," ADS said Tuesday.

Internet game overdose: Second gamer dies after massive binge Just days after the first 'internet overdose', another addict has died after a marathon games binge. The 27 year-old Taiwanese man collapsed after playing computer games for 32 hours non-stop.

3G Marketing - Get the picture? The heat is on for mobile operators. They need to offer compelling next-generation services at the right price and with the right levels of service to avoid the failures of other early data launches. But while the trend now is not to promise too much, operators must still pay attention to how they market themselves, lest they put off users with too little information.

Just Like the Day They Died: Texas Library Preserves Remains of Defunct Agencies Deep in the basement of the A.M. Willis Jr. Library at UNT, a computer server preserves the Web sites of government entities that have received their final appropriation, including the Office of Technology Assessment, the National Bankruptcy Review Commission and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government. "It all gets back to the idea that the people of a democracy need to know . . . what their government is doing," said Cathy Nelson Hartman, head of the government documents department at UNT and creator of the "CyberCemetery."

Wireless content - the revenue generator of tomorrow?

Unhappy Trails: Keeping your private communications secure isn't as easy as you might think. Ninety percent of the 500-plus companies responding to this year's joint FBI/Computer Security Institute survey had computer security breaches within the prior 12 months, resulting in a loss of almost a half billion dollars.

Introducing the Microcontent Client: Microcontent is meme-sized pieces of the Internet. We've discovered in the last few years that navigating the web in meme-sized chunks is the natural idiom of the Internet. So it's time to create a tool that's designed for the job of viewing, managing, and publishing microcontent. This tool is the microcontent client.

Microsoft mounts direct challenge to AOL: Bill Gates' Microsoft is to go head to head with AOL for the first time by launching its first family orientated subscription service offering parental control. Mr Gates, the world's second richest man, is due to launch the US version of the new service, called MSN 8, in Times Squares, New York, tomorrow but the UK will be the first European market to launch on November 26.

Researchers predict worm that eats the Internet in 15 minutes: Computer science researchers are predicting new types of dangerous worms that would be able to infect Web servers, browsers and other software so quickly that the working Internet itself could be taken over in a matter of minutes.

Welfare Software: Philanthropists, not-for-profit groups, and government agencies continue to spend millions improving public access to computers—the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alone has installed more than 30,000 computers in public libraries, with the goal of adding another 11,000 by 2005. But a growing number of social service agencies say software, not hardware, is the technology most sorely needed by Americans on the wrong side of the so-called digital divide, and a growing number of companies and universities are responding.

The Future Is… Then: A Federal Report That Takes a Page From 1930s Science Fiction Who needs science fiction? Federal tech and science wonks this summer went wild in a 400-page assessment of what nano, bio, info, and cogno might do for humanity. Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance — a joint effort by the Commerce Department and the National Science Foundation — looks forward to a new age in federal science procurement. Consciously or not, the report echoes classic science fiction from 70 years ago at almost every turn. Too bad the prose isn’t as good.

Disabilities Act doesn't cover Web: In the first case of its kind, U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz said the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies only to physical spaces, such as restaurants and movie theaters, and not to the Internet. "To expand the ADA to cover 'virtual' spaces would be to create new rights without well-defined standards," Seitz wrote in a 12-page opinion dismissing the case. "The plain and unambiguous language of the statute and relevant regulations does not include Internet Web sites."

Beltway sniper takes out FBI cyber-sleuth: "A single bullet took out more 'computing' power at FBI NIPC than a cyber-terrorist could ever hope to achieve. Second: this assassination inflicted a quantifiable, tangible damage both in terms of money (e.g. casualty insurance) and lost manpower, which is something the FBI and the White House cannot quantify when it comes to the non-existent cyber-terrorism they fear so much"

Microsoft Using Kazaa as a Marketing Portal: In early September, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates staged a Hollywood gala to impress the recording and movie industries with his company's latest software for digital music and video, Windows Media 9. A few weeks later, Microsoft started showing off Windows Media 9 to an audience reviled by the entertainment industry: the Kazaa file-sharing network, where users routinely copy digital songs, films and software free.

Protección de Datos denuncia la indefensión de los ciudadanos al facilitar datos por la Red y SMS: Alertan de que los usuarios que participan a través de Internet o SMS en concursos de televisión no tienen conocimiento de cómo serán utilizados sus datos personales

Microsoft, Panasonic propose (another) CD standard: Microsoft, Panasonic and Fujifilm have announced a new format for CDs which they hope will establish a new standard and bring the world of PCs, DVDs and other CD formats together

Microsoft loses software ruling in California case: Court findings that Microsoft unlawfully protected its monopoly for personal-computer software can be used in a suit by California computer owners seeking billions of dollars in damages, a judge said. The ruling is a setback to the Redmond software company, which had sought to keep the findings in the federal government's antitrust lawsuit from being used in the California case. The consumers claim they were forced to pay inflated prices for software because of Microsoft's monopoly.

Número de assinantes supera média europeia: Segundo números divulgados pela Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), a taxa de penetração do serviço de acesso à Internet, no 2/o trimestre de 2002, atingiu os 43 por cento, um valor que em igual período do ano anterior se fixara nos 29 por cento. A penetração da Internet em Portugal é já superior à que se verifica em termos médios na Europa, onde este indicador se situa nos 39 acessos por cada cem habitantes. [- Qual a fonte dos dados sobre a Europa?... (A Lusa "pica" o Diário de Notícias de hoje sem o referir!) - E porque se contabilizam diferentes acessos gratuitos como sendo individualizados quando alguém pode ter várias contas?...]

Software idea may be just crazy enough to work: For more than a year, [Mitch] Kapor and his small team have been working on what they're calling an open-source ``Interpersonal Information Manager.'' The software is being designed to securely handle personal e-mail, calendars, contacts and other such data in new ways, and to make it simple to collaborate and share information with others without having to run powerful, expensive server computers. As with other open-source software, the source code (programming instructions) will be freely available along with the working program. An early version of the calendar part of the software should be posted on the Web by the end of this year, and version 1.0 of the whole thing is slated for the end of 2003 or early 2004. Code-named ``Chandler'' after the late mystery novelist Raymond Chandler, the software will run on the Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. Initially, it will be aimed at individuals and small businesses, but it's also being designed as a platform upon which other developers can build useful software and services of their own.

Chess: Man vs. Machine Plays Out So why wasn't the Kasparov-Deep Blue match enough to settle the issue of who's superior, humans or machines?

Politics of high-tech pork A report that will be released this week by the hard-working policy mavens at the Cato Institute, called "Birth of the Digital New Deal," contains the first comprehensive survey of the fast-growing area of technology pork. "Just as policymakers proposed a litany of New Deal programs and spending initiatives during the Great Depression era, lawmakers today are devising many new federal programs aimed at solving the supposed emergencies or disasters that will befall the telecommunications industry without government assistance," the report warns. "The recent troubles of the dot-com and telecommunications sectors have only added fuel to the fire." Technology leaders sometimes make the mistake of concluding that these handouts are a good idea. After all, when bankruptcies are zooming and layoffs are in the news every day, it's tempting for a cash-strapped CEO to turn to the federal trough. But when an industry goes to Washington for help, eventually Washington demands something in return. As science-fiction author Robert Heinlein once wrote, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. With increased government spending come increased regulations, rules and red tape--all of which are exactly the opposite of what fosters an innovative tech sector. Senate Approves Almost $1B for Cybersecurity Research: The U.S. Senate Wednesday night unanimously passed legislation that would more than triple the federal funding commitment to cybersecurity research, to about $978 million over five years. The bill authorizes grants for basic research and industry partnership programs.

Are electrical appliances dangerous to your health? "To one degree or another, all three of the scientists who worked on the EMF Program are inclined to believe that electromagnetic fields (EMFs) can cause some degree of increased risk of childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and miscarriage," says Dr. Raymond Neutra, one of the scientists who wrote the report.

Gamers Film Digs Into Cultural Phenomenon: 'Counter-Strike' documentary project looks deep into the world of professional videogamers and their digital passion.

Can a Hacker Outfox Microsoft? Microsoft only announced Palladium - its initiative to build anti-copying technology into the hardware and operating system of a PC - a few months ago. It's already causing a great deal of consternation within the cypherpunk and hacker communities. But a comment by Peter Biddle, Microsoft's Product Manager for Palladium at the 11th USENIX Security Symposium this past August revealed that software companies might not be able to use Palladium to fight piracy or enforce the terms of software licenses. Eager to allay fears about the scope of Palladium, Biddle insisted that the impetus behind Palladium was solely to secure digital entertainment content and that he knew of no way that it could be used for the enforcement of software licensing. This assurance was made while he spoke on a panel at the USENIX Symposium. Skeptical that this was actually the case, fellow panelist Lucky Green quickly filed two patents soon after the conference. The patents described methods for using the Palladium infrastructure to assist in the enforcement of software licensing. Green has a third patent application on the way.

The Art of Change: Technologies that are Reshaping the World

Texting the television: Interactive TV has taken off in Europe in an unexpected way: via mobile phones

DOJ Describes Its Cybersurveillance (Sort Of): Congressional inquiry satisfied, but some want more details about how Patriot Act power is being used. Cybersecurity Debate Hits the Road: Boston hosts 'town hall' discussion of national plan encouraging all Net users to do their part. National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace: If the U.S. government wants something done, they should pass a law. That's what governments do. It's like pollution; don't mandate specific technologies, legislate results. Make companies liable for insecurities, and you'll be surprised how quickly things get more secure. Leave the feel-good PR activities to the various industry trade organizations; that's what they're supposed to do.

Computer Ads [Antigos] IBM Electronic Calculator [Anúncio de 1951]

An Interview With Douglas Bowman of Wired News: On October 11, 2002, Wired News launched a major new redesign. What's so impressive about that? The design is based on XHTML 1.0 and no tables. All of the layout and appearance is driven by a small collection of CSS files. Find out how they did it, and what benefits and drawbacks this design entailed, in an in-depth interview with Douglas Bowman of Wired News.

Has the PC Reached a Plateau? The endless upgrade cycle may be leveling off, according to one of the men behind Apple Computer. Steve Wozniak, Apple Computer's co-founder and one of the key people behind the PC revolution, believes the seemingly unrelenting upgrade cycle is leveling off--creating economic problems for some technology makers, but giving financial relief to buyers. End users "pretty much have as much computer as they need, and they really don't need twice the speed anymore," Wozniak said. That wasn't the case 25 years ago, when he and Steve Jobs founded Apple. Within five years, the demand for processing power helped propel Apple into a $500 million company.

Technology companies: Haves and have-nots Technology companies are dividing into two camps: those that are recovering and those that are still losing ground. While a revival in the fortunes of some is welcome, it is not yet a sign that the industry has cured its ills Why are some companies doing better than others? One reason is that, now more than ever, those that are competitive seem to be punishing those that are not.

The new software controversy: Who knew that software licensing would ever turn into such hotly contested territory? [T]he proposal in question, the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA), favors the interests of corporations over consumers. What's more, they say, the measure would let software companies dictate settlement terms in conflicts and potentially slow the development of better software applications. Laws, however, have not caught up to the PC era, according to the proposal's backers. The same litigation guidelines that apply to laundry machines, cars and televisions govern litigation over software. This is why the business software industry is backing UCITA, believing that it will modernize laws regarding commercial interstate transactions to make them specifically applicable to software.

A Digital Pen That Recalls Your On-the-Run Jottings: Next month Logitech plans to release the Io Personal Digital Pen, which allows users to store and retrieve their handwritten information digitally. The Io applies conventional ink to special paper covered with tiny, barely visible dots. An optical sensor in the pen captures the pattern of the pen strokes by taking 50 snapshots a second. Its memory can store up to 40 pages of anything that can be written or drawn.

Game Development à la Mod: Hacker Minh Le's Counter-Strike is the stuff of media execs' dreams - an over-the-transom blockbuster. Today, Le's homespun project, called Counter-Strike, is the most popular multiplayer action game in the world. Bigger than Quake. Bigger than Unreal. The numbers are staggering: Over 1.7 million players spend more than 2.4 billion minutes a month in the game. (The top-rated TV show Friends generates 2.9 billion viewer minutes a month.) In addition to its free Internet distribution, Counter-Strike has sold 1.3 million shrink-wrapped copies at retail; in 2003 a version for Microsoft's Xbox will hit the stores.

Beta hack rattles Microsoft: Microsoft is investigating a security breach on a server that hosts its Windows beta community, which allows more than 20,000 Windows users a chance to test software that is still in development.

AnswerBus: Question Answering System Type in your question in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian or Portuguese. [Curioso que quando se pergunta "quem é o presidente da república" as respostas vêm da monárquica Juventude Lusitana...]

How do Internet search engines work?

Affluent Americans Lead Web Growth Six-figure-income households make up the fastest growth group on the Web, according to a survey by Web research firm Nielsen//NetRatings. The survey found that individuals with household incomes ranging from $100,000 to $150,000 are the fastest growing income group online, which represents nearly 15 million Web surfers. The income group represents the most growth in people using the Web, up about 20 percent compared to a tally last year, Nielsen//NetRatings said. By the firm's numbers, the income bracket now represents about 12 percent of the Web population.

Thousands of tech firms refuse to play swan song: Vinod Khosla, a general partner at venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, estimates that of 10,000 tech companies in the USA, about 8,000 "need to die."

Claude E. Shannon: Founder of Information Theory With the fundamental new discipline of quantum information science now under construction, it's a good time to look back at an extraordinary scientist who single-handedly launched classical information theory

Beyond the Inbox: E-mail was supposed to be the killer app. But now it's looking more like a business killer. Email Newsletter Usability: 79 design guidelines for subscription, newsletter content and account maintenance based on usability studies

Retailers Shun New Acclaim 'XXX' Game: Three of the nation's top retailers, including Wal Mart, on Monday said they had refused to carry a new video game billed as the first major release to feature full-action nudity and with prostitutes and pimps as major characters. Nintendo courts adult gamers: With a shrinking number of youngsters in its home market of Japan and the growing popularity of sophisticated games for adults in the U.S., Nintendo is now courting the older set. It has started to roll out more adult-style games for its GameCube console, with titles like Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, a psychological thriller featuring bleeding walls and “bone thieves” that can enter a human body and take it over. Later this month, Viacom Inc.’s Simon & Schuster unit will release Outlaw Golf, a tongue-in-cheek golf game featuring rappers and strippers, for the GameCube, following the game’s release for Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox earlier this year.

The keyboard that isn't there Canesta, from San Jose in Silicon Valley, has designed what it calls an integrated projection keyboard for mobile and wireless devices. Israeli developers demonstrated a similar device at CeBIT earlier this year. Basically it's a keyboard made of light, which heralds an end to the days of those working on the move having to lug around numerous gadgets.

Riding along with the Internet Bookmobile Angered by a law that extends copyright terms for 20 years, a crusader named Brewster [Internet Archive] Kahle wants to use the Internet to make books available to everyone.

Chess: Man Vs Machine

Register, or else... What's the next step beyond software product activation? How about hardware deactivation?

HP Debuts PC That Works Like a TV, Too The HP computer, which will be available by the end of October, comes with a remote control, television tuner, and can record and play television shows and digital music. Microsoft nixes TV copy protection Microsoft has bowed to consumer pressure and pulled back from a controversial plan that would have encrypted TV shows recorded on forthcoming digital media PCs. MS backs away from media copy restrictions

Le mobile qui en met plein les yeux: Vendus entre 30 et 200 euros, les «shamails phones», lancés il y a un an, remportent un énorme succès au Japon. Impossible, désormais, de se balader dans un musée japonais sans voir un Nippon dégainer son shamail pour immortaliser un tableau, une scène, ou le sourire des enfants en train de gambader devant un temple.

Arnaut anuncia estratégia para banda larga [a reboque do Bloco de Esquerda?] «Esta estratégia tem como objectivos definir o que se entende por oferta de banda larga, identificar as tendências tecnológicas, caracterizar o actual mercado, traçar o mapa das redes existentes, traçar objectivos e metas concretas e, por fim, definir políticas públicas de aquisição de serviços», garantiu Luís Arnaut. O ministro adjunto avançou com o exemplo do Reino Unido, onde o incentivo ao investimento e à implementação da tecnologia de banda larga tem sido um grande aposta do governo. [Tem sido uma grande aposta?... "UK urged to join broadband fast lane": Broadband in the UK is not nearly fast enough and action needs to be taken if Britain wants to stay competitive in the high-speed internet market.]

Googling Your Email What would it be like to Google your email? Raphaël Szwarc's ZOË is a clever piece of software that explores this idea.

The world's most dangerous server room?

Understanding the Privacy Space This paper reports on an ongoing research project focusing on privacy tools, and services available on the Internet. A detailed examination of 133 different privacy-related software tools and services rendered a list of 1,241 features relating to privacy. Based on the data gathered, the ongoing work is to formulate a framework to describe this "privacy space" using grounded theory and content analytic techniques. Here, we discuss some of more interesting preliminary findings garnered from a descriptive statistical analysis of the raw data. This paper discusses what can be learned from a user-centric analysis of this increasingly important class of software tools.

Hacktivists or Cyberterrorists? The Changing Media Discourse on Hacking This paper scrutinizes the language of government reports and news media sources to shed light on their role in forming a negative image of politically motivated hacking in general, and online political activism, in particular. It is argued that the mass media's portrayal of hacking conveniently fits the elite's strategy to form a popular consensus in a way that supports the elite's crusade under different pretexts to eradicate hacking, an activity that may potentially threaten the dominant order.

Mobile Junkies Reshaping Society? As Rheingold puts it: "Mobile communications and pervasive computing technologies, together with social contracts that were never possible before, are already beginning to change the way people meet, mate, work, war, buy, sell, govern and create."

Fake bank website cons victims West African criminals have used a fake version of a British bank's online service to milk victims of cash, say police. The fake site was used to squeeze more money out of people they had already hooked. The site has been shut down. But UK National Criminal Intelligence Service, (NCIS), said at least two Canadians had lost more than $100,000 after being taken in by the fake website.

This Avatar's Got News for You Her name is Seonaid (pronounced "Shona"), and she's a 28-year-old cat-loving U2 fan who reads the news at the Scottish government's website, the Scottish Executive. If there's one drawback in her résumé, however, it might be the fact that she's not human. Seonaid's creators claim she is the world's first real-time virtual character to star on a government website. [Mais uma... A novidade é estar num sítio Web governamental]

The Networked Home Crazy For A Connected Kitchen? Japanese Masters Get Closer to the Toilet Nirvana New E-Toilet To Revolutionize On-Line Shitting

The story on HP: Company edits history to include Compaq, exclude merger battle

Instant imaging device gives GPs safe new window into the body A camera that can see through clothes, skin and even walls without X-rays has been developed in what is being called one of the first great technological breakthroughs of the 21st century. [Todas as previsões são possíveis, já só faltam 98 anos para o fim do século...] The "terahertz" camera, still in prototype form, is under rapid development by scientists in Oxfordshire. It is likely to have many applications, ranging from medical scanning to identifying concealed weapons on airline passengers. Unlike X-rays, it does not expose patients to potentially harmful radiation. Instead, it detects a form of ultra-high-frequency, or terahertz, energy waves naturally emitted by all objects. [Além de parecer uma ideia tirada do filme "Total Recall", já houve uma câmara de vídeo (Sony?) que filmava para lá da roupa... Ou estou errado?]

A Contribution to the Understanding of Illegal Copying of Software: Empirical and analytical evidence against conventional wisdom First, empirical evidence suggests that illegal copying is far more complicated that having “bad guys” who don’t want to pay for software. Illegal copying is partially generated by this reason, as well as by social characteristics, poorly served markets and software products that don’t fit local needs. Analytical and empirical evidence suggests that allowing illegal copying in early stages of development of a software market helps to achieve a faster development of the market, to the benefit of the copyright owner, and may be a dominant strategy for a closed source software company in presence of open source competition. [...] Resulting from this, an additional implication is that proprietary software companies enforce their copyright in a way that appears to be contingent to the possibilities of using illegal copying as source of market development and competing with open source, for later trying to capture the market by legal means. This “strategy of market development” is likely to be more profitable than a proper “sponsorship” strategy [...] From a public policy perspective, a major question remains: How to consider the legal revenues generated by illegal copying in policy discussions about compensation to copyright owners. From a business policy standpoint, the question is how to design strategies that would better take advantage and control of the, now illegal, user base. Developing countries engagement is critical, and they need help from and local presence of IT companies.

Microsoft: Users may have to pay for security Microsoft is considering charging for additional security options, and admits it didn't move on security until customers were ready to pay for it

International Trademark Metasearch

The Lawyer's Guide to Marketing on the Internet: the blog

E-Mail Mining: The Wages of Scandal You think you have e-mail overload? You have it easy. The lawyers working on Enron lawsuits - they have overload. They probably have north of 100 million text documents to go through to prepare for any litigation. That's a lot of discovery.

Microsoft-Compatible Plug-In from Stealth MediaLabs, Inc. Can Stealthily Embed Credit Card Numbers in Copied Music How many unpaid copies of music would you circulate if each contained your own credit card number? That's the question being asked today, as Chicago-based Stealth MediaLabs, Inc. debuts this week on NASDAQ. Built upon a new Microsoft Windows Media-compatible technology developed by researchers at the University of Miami; the StealthChannel(TM) is capable of stealthily embedding up to 20 kb/s of data into almost any digital audio signal. Embedded data can be anything, from images to text to credit card numbers, if desired by the copyright owner.

Environmentalists Identify New Menace: Discarded Cellphones According to industry figures, cellphone use in the United States has surged, to more than 128 million subscribers last year from 340,000 in 1985. Typically, each phone is used for 18 months before being dropped for a newer model. [...] By 2005, the report estimates, 130 million cellphones will be thrown out each year. Counting the phones, batteries and chargers, that comes to 65,000 tons a year, the report said.

Linux: Popular, but can it do Windows? Linux, the computer operating system developed in the 1990s by a college student in Finland, is unlikely to dethrone Microsoft's Windows as the ubiquitous operating system on desktop PCs anytime soon. But Wharton faculty and a Linux supporter say that Linux will gradually become more attractive to consumers as more applications are developed for it.

Report finds Satellites at Risk of Hacks: Want to find the most-ignored cybersecurity hole in America's critical infrastructure? Congressional investigators say, Look up! [18.10.02] Commercial Satellite Security Should Be More Fully Addressed [August 2002]

High Court Scene of Showdown on Copyright Law: The case will test Congress' power to extend protection. Films from Hollywood's Golden Age play a key role in the dispute. Coming to terms with copyright: Anyone interested in the future direction of technology should pay attention to a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear when the new session begins this week. Technically, the oral arguments on Wednesday are about the fate of a federal law called the Copyright Term Extension Act, which extends the duration of all U.S. copyrights for 20 years. A group of artists and moviemakers sued to overturn the law, saying they had hoped to make use of materials that were in the public domain--but found they no longer could because of the longer duration of each copyright. Championing their suit is a who's-who of law professors, led by Stanford University's Larry Lessig. This case is not directly about technology. It's not even about topics that, compared with the sickly stock market or a war with Iraq, many people would find all that compelling. Few of us are legal academics, and almost nobody is directly affected by whether or not a book, song, or movie created in 1923 can be copied legally or not. But what the Supreme Court decides in this case, Eldred v. Ashcroft, could create ripple effects that spread throughout the technology industry and shape what kind of software and hardware products are legal to create and sell. Glitterati vs. Geeks: Hollywood and Silicon Valley, take the fight over content to the Supremes

Digital Town Hall: How local officials use the Internet and the civic benefits they cite from dealing with constituents online

Bill would circumvent foreign censors: The legislation, unveiled Wednesday by Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., would create an Office of Global Internet Freedom charged with fighting Internet blocking and helping Web users in countries such as China and Syria get around censorship efforts and avoid punishment. The bill also would allocate $50 million each year over the next two years to develop and promote anti-blocking technology. [Não é a isto que se chama "ingerência interna", apesar de o intuito ser positivo? E qual o efeito da legislação nos próprios Estados Unidos? Ver "House votes to limit online gambling, hoping to choke offshore gambling sites that continue to draw billions of dollars from U.S. customers".]

PT ganha [13,5] milhões de euros com venda de rede da TMN É a segunda operação que a PT fez com a rede da TMN em apenas cinco meses. Na primeira, o grupo obteve um encaixe de 15 milhões de euros. A rede mantém-se nos activos da TMN [Que raio de negócio mais móvel!... Qual a vantagem: fuga aos impostos? A PT/TMN bem o podia explicar mais claramente...]

Device to zap email addresses through a handshake unveiled: Nippon Telegraph and its subsidiary NTT DoCoMo have announced successful trials of a device that attaches to a PDA and uses weak electric currents to link one device to another using the body as a conductor. [O MIT não tinha um projecto semelhante?...] [08.10.02] Não era o MIT mas sim a IBM

Video-game industry sees possible slowing: The video-game industry has defied economic gravity as industry sales have held up during the high-tech downturn. But as game makers head into the crucial fourth-quarter selling season, some observers say the industry will have a hard time hitting its goal of 25 percent sales growth. In the past year, the launch of new consoles and gamer enthusiasm has benefited all of the companies in the industry, but now it looks as though the market will separate into winners and losers.

Game company offers to pay speeding fines: A computer game company's offer to pay the speeding fines of all drivers as part of an advertising promotion for a new motor racing game has been branded irresponsible and dangerous by the government.

Birds of a Feather: Who wrecked telecom? Critics blame the fledglings. But the folks who did the most damage were veterans.

Beyond War's Hell, the Bedeviling Details: In the newest military games, military consultants have particularly influenced cooperative play: the way soldiers work in concert to achieve a mission. Working effectively with and within a squad is vital to succeeding at Conflict: Desert Storm as well as staying alive on a real battlefield, said Cameron Spence, a 13-year veteran of the Special Air Service, or SAS, the British equivalent of the Delta Force. Mr. Spence, who wrote a best seller about the six weeks that he and his elite squad spent behind enemy lines in the Persian Gulf war in 1991, is the co-author of the official strategy guide for the Desert Storm game and delivers intelligence analysis before each of the game's 15 missions.

An early look at Microsoft's Xbox Live: Microsoft will bring its console online next month. Here's an early peek. Over the next month and a half, you're going to be hearing a lot about Xbox Live – the online component of the software giant's console gaming system – and for good reason. Microsoft has committed to spending $2 billion on the Xbox over the next five years. A substantial portion of that is on Xbox Live.

Scheme hides Web access: Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have come up with a scheme that could guarantee users access to data in such a way that their actions could not be monitored.

Philips Shows Off Coin-Size Optical Discs: Miniature discs can hold 1GB of data, and could replace memory cards in future electronic devices. Atomic memory developed: Imagine a CD with a storage capacity not of 650 MB but 650 million MB. Such a storage capacity is theoretically possible because of experiments using individual atoms to store data. But do not expect it soon; the gap between theory and practice is wide.

The Truth About Big Brother Databases: Worried that your personal details may be stored away in a database for anyone to see? Two public records experts describe exactly what is - and is not - included in "big brother" databases.

List: Windows, Unix Still at Risk: The FBI and the SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security (SANS) Institute compiled the annual top 20 list. Key vulnerabilities for Windows include flaws in its SQL servers, unprotected networking shares and weak password protection. Top Unix weaknesses include holes in the Apache Web server, file-transfer protocol (FTP), the Sendmail function and general Unix authentication (accounts with nonexistent or weak passwords). Biggest Security Threat? Insiders U.S. companies worried about hackers stealing their trade secrets should be even more afraid of former employees, competitors and contractors, according to a new study. Intellectual property and proprietary information are more at risk from ex-employees, foreign and domestic competitors and contractors working on-site than from computer hackers, according to a study released this week PricewaterhouseCoopers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) International.

The Book on Mitnick Is by Mitnick: Things are certainly looking up for the man who was once the media's evil hacker poster boy. Mitnick even has the government's seal of approval now -- the Federal Communications Commission has just officially declared him a reformed man and has decided to allow Mitnick to keep his radio license. The commission's report cited Mitnick's new book, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security, as a contributing factor in their decision. Both business and book are designed to help others defend against exactly the sorts of social-engineering scams that put Mitnick behind bars for 4.5 years on charges of computer fraud. Kevin Mitnick's Laptop Seized by FBI: This is the Toshiba Satellite T1960CS, 486 laptop computer seized by the FBI on February 15, 1995, in Raleigh, NC, during the arrest of the world's most celebrated computer hacker, Kevin Mitnick. The laptop is working [...] Famed Hacker Mitnick Hawking Historic Laptops, Book: Famed hacker Kevin Mitnick said on Wednesday he is coming clean and hoping to make some money in the process by writing a book and auctioning off the infamous laptops he used to break into networks while he was a fugitive in the 1990s.

Oposição recorda críticas de Durão à venda da rede fixa: Durão Barroso, enquanto líder da oposição, considerou em Dezembro passado, numa entrevista ao "Diário Económico", que a venda da rede fixa de telecomunicações à Portugal Telecom (PT) seria uma "operação condenável de todos os pontos de vista", e até "uma perversão das regras do mercado" caso o negócio fosse feito sem dar possibilidade aos operadores concorrentes de manifestarem o seu interesse. Ontem, o Governo formado por Durão Barroso apresentou ao Parlamento uma proposta de lei que permite transferir a propriedade da rede básica do domínio público para o privado, com o fito de alienar aquele activo, "por ajuste directo, ao prestador do serviço universal de telecomunicações, que é a PT. [Mas não só: A 4 de Dezembro de 2001, o Público afirmava que "Durão Barroso acusou [...] o Governo de estar a tentar vender a rede fixa de telecomunicações à PT "porque são 100 milhões de contos que fazem jeito para tapar alguns buracos do Orçamento". [O] presidente do PSD considerou que a situação é "injusta", afirmando que "mais uma vez, é gastar agora e depois as futuras gerações que paguem"] [07.10.02] Manuel Ferreira Leite, ministra das Finanças Este ano vai fartar-se de vender... Vou, porque preciso de acorrer a uma situação extraordinária. E trata-se de vender bens que não são úteis: tudo o que existe no património do Estado que é inactivo, que não tem utilidade. Esse é o caso da rede fixa de telecomunicações? Não a considero uma jóia de família. Pode ser vendida ente ano? Pode e vai ser. Para conseguir atingir os objectivos do défice público.

Orçamento de Estado para 2003 Sociedade da Informação A implementação de uma sociedade de informação e do conhecimento acessível a todos é uma das prioridades do Governo. Portugal deve posicionar-se como um dos países com elevado desempenho nos indicadores da Sociedade da Informação, mobilizar a sociedade para alcançar as metas do “Plano de Acção e-Europe 2005: “Uma sociedade da informação para todos”, adoptado pela União Europeia e modernizar a organização do Estado, orientando-o para os cidadãos. Para o cumprimento dos referidos desígnios o Governo actuará, de forma integrada, em várias áreas, tais como o Governo electrónico, o acesso generalizado à Internet, a economia digital, as tecnologias de informação e comunicação e a segurança digital. [...] Ministério da Ciência e do Ensino Superior: Tendo por base a necessidade de desenvolver/aprofundar o sistema científico, tecnológico e do ensino superior, o Ministério da Ciência e do Ensino Superior, irá prosseguir, em 2003 as seguintes medidas: [...] • dinamização de uma Rede de Conhecimentos Tecnológicos Avançados baseada na Internet (Intertec); • apoio ao desenvolvimento de clusters empresariais avançados com utilização intensiva do conhecimento e da tecnologia; • criação de uma biblioteca científica on line; • divulgação e promoção da ciência e da tecnologia, junto das escolas e da população em geral; • incentivo à criação de um «Fórum Ciência e Tecnologia ao Serviço do Desenvolvimento»; • internacionalização do sistema nacional de C&T, em particular, através dos programas europeus de I&D e da participação mais activa da comunidade científica nacional e das empresas nos grandes organismos científico-tecnológicos internacionais de que o país é associado. Ministério da Cultura: A política cultural integra diversos projectos, programas e acções a concretizar em 2003, nos domínios que a compõem, designadamente: • adaptação dos arquivos à Sociedade de Informação; • apoiar o sector audiovisual e multimédia e adoptar novas medidas de apoio à exibição; [18.10.02: faltava a SI nas GOPs...] Grandes Opções do Plano 2003-2006: Sociedade da Informação No que concerne às diversas vertentes da Sociedade da Informação, é imperioso retirar Portugal da cauda da Europa. Sendo certo que a Sociedade da Informação não é um fim em si mesmo, ela constitui uma oportunidade para: - alterar as relações entre os cidadãos e o Estado; - reinventar a organização do Estado, orientando-o para os cidadãos; - criar um sector de tecnologias de informação e comunicação forte e competitivo. Tendo em vista alcançar tais desideratos, devem ser adoptadas medidas estratégicas, como: - a assunção da liderança e coordenação horizontal a partir de um órgão na dependência directa do Primeiro Ministro; - a elaboração de um Plano Estratégico Info 2005, com definição da estratégia de digitalização de toda a Administração Pública. Para a sua concretização, e na área do e-government serão adoptadas as seguintes medidas: - todos os serviços públicos deverão estar on-line a partir de 2003; - os “sites” do Governo deverão ser, para além de informativos, acessíveis, interactivos, transaccionais, seguros e personalizados; - lançamento do portal “Portugal on line”, para onde convergem todos os serviços e informação do Governo, organizado de acordo com as necessidades quotidianas dos cidadãos; - lançamento de um portal com idêntica filosofia para as empresas, que centralize os serviços da administração em função das suas necessidades, sobretudo as PME’s; - criação de um Plano Estratégico dos Serviços Públicos Electrónicos, uma estratégia de ebusiness por parte dos diversos departamentos da Administração Pública, através de planos de negócio devidamente estruturados, alicerçados em equipas de gestão qualificadas; - lançamento de um número de telefone de informações da Administração Pública; - criação de um portal do funcionário público, numa rede ao serviço da Administração Pública; - criação de um plano de segurança digital nacional. No que respeita ao acesso massificado à Internet, a concretizar através do lançamento doo Programa “Todos on-line com todos”, enformado pelos seguintes objectivos: - combater a info-exclusão; - assegurar a existência de pontos públicos de acesso em todas as freguesias; - assegurar que todas as bibliotecas públicas e estações de correio tenham pontos de acesso à Internet; - assegurar que o ratio de número de computadores por cada 100 estudantes seja superior à média comunitária; - incluir no orçamento de cada escola uma verba para aquisição de conteúdos didácticos na Internet. Quanto à exploração das potencialidades da sociedade da informação e no que respeita ao aumento da competitividade da economia portuguesa: - serão acreditadas entidades certificadoras e será criado um portal especificamente destinado às empresas; - incentivar-se-á igualmente o investimento de capital de risco em empresas do sector tecnológico. A aposta tecnológica central para o período da legislatura consiste ela na generalização da banda larga para todos, a preços acessíveis. Impõe-se assegurar o acesso e a utilização de todas as redes de telecomunicações pela generalidade dos operadores, permitindo a “explosão” de novos serviços e conteúdos a preços competitivos. Para esse feito, promover-se-á: - o surgimento de operadores de serviços e de infra-estruturas alternativas; - a abertura, em condições justas, das infra-estruturas dominantes: lacete local, preços de interligação; - uma concorrência forte e sã no sector de modo a evitar, nomeadamente, situações de abuso de posição dominante e subsidiação cruzada. 3ª OPÇÃO - INVESTIR NA QUALIFICAÇÃO DOS PORTUGUESES SOCIEDADE DA INFORMAÇÃO A criação de uma Sociedade da Informação e do Conhecimento acessível a todos é hoje uma aposta política fundamental, quer de Portugal quer da União Europeia. A massificação do acesso à internet de banda larga, a disponibilização de serviços públicos electrónicos e a criação de novos serviços inovadores vão alterar profundamente a forma como nós comunicamos, trabalhamos e interagirmos uns com os outros. Portugal deve ter a ambição de estar ao nível das mais desenvolvidas nações do mundo, o que passa pela promoção de uma cultura do saber científico e tecnológico; pela aposta na capacidade de inovação, por uma generalizada atitude empreendedora na sociedade portuguesa. Catalizada pelo governo, a sociedade portuguesa deverá assumir na integra o “Plano de Acção eEurope 2005: Uma sociedade da informação para todos”, adoptado pela União Europeia no Conselho Europeu de Sevilha, o qual tem como objectivos − fomentar a criação de emprego, impulsionar a produtividade, modernizar os serviços públicos e oferecer a todos a oportunidade de participarem na sociedade da informação. A União Europeia dos 25 países pós-alargamento é uma Europa do conhecimento, para a qual Portugal tem de estar preparado. O que implica mobilizar a administração pública, os cidadãos e as empresas. Neste âmbito, as Grandes Opções do Plano deste domínio são: - posicionar Portugal como um dos países com elevado desempenho nos indicadores da Sociedade da Informação, ao nível da União Europeia; - mobilizar a sociedade portuguesa para que Portugal alcance as metas do “Plano de Acção e-Europe 2005”; - modernizar a organização do Estado, orientando-o para os cidadãos. Para cumprir estes objectivos estratégicos é imprescindível a existência de intervenção a cinco níveis: - Governo electrónico - Acesso generalizado à internet - Economia digital - Tecnologias de informação e comunicação - Segurança digital Devido às características de abrangência associadas à Sociedade da Informação, qualquer intervenção para ser eficaz, implica uma coordenação muito forte ao nível governamental, pelo que a primeira medida estratégica é a assunção da coordenação horizontal desta área a partir de um órgão na dependência directa do Ministro Adjunto do Primeiro Ministro. GOVERNO ELECTRÓNICO O programa do XV Governo faz uma clara aposta estratégica na mudança do Estado, através do Governo Electrónico. Uma boa administração pública é vital para elevar a produtividade e o nível de desenvolvimento do País. O conceito de governo electrónico (“e-government”) é baseado no processo de transformação do Estado, apoiado nas tecnologias de informação e das comunicações e cujos principais objectivos são a melhoria dos serviços prestados aos cidadãos, a redução dos custos de funcionamento do Estado e a criação de valor na economia. Importa estruturar os serviços electrónicos em função das necessidades dos cidadãos (e das empresas) e não da estrutura interna da administração pública. Isso exige a simplificação do acesso aos serviços prestados por entidades públicas, através de um único ponto de entrada, com uma linguagem simples e acessível, organizado em função dos interesses e necessidades do cidadão e não em função da estrutura da administração pública. Nesse sentido, os serviços públicos electrónicos deverão estar disponíveis para servir os cidadãos a qualquer hora, a partir de qualquer plataforma tecnológica. Há, nesta perspectiva, que planear cuidadosamente a intervenção nesta área através da realização de dois importantes instrumentos orientadores da acção: - Plano Estratégico Info 2005, com diagnóstico da situação actual, análise de ganhos de eficiência potenciais e definição da estratégia de digitalização de toda a Administração Pública; - Plano Estratégico dos Serviços Públicos Electrónicos, que define uma estratégia de “e-business” por parte dos diversos departamentos da Administração Pública, através de planos de negócio devidamente estruturados, alicerçados em equipas de gestão qualificadas. ACESSO GENERALIZADO À INTERNET Para que a percepção das vantagens da Sociedade da Informação seja clara, é importante que os cidadãos adiram massivamente à Internet e às tecnologias da informação. Mas há igualmente uma questão mais vasta, de cultura e de atitude. Uma sociedade “digitalizada” terá maior potencial criativo, porque terá maior potencial de conhecimento, está apta a aprender com mundo. Assim, a generalização do acesso e utilização da Internet deve ser um objectivo transversal da sociedade portuguesa. Este objectivo implica um conjunto de medidas integradas que permita um novo impulso, um salto quantitativo, que coloque Portugal noutro patamar, rumo à massificação no acesso à rede. Nesta área temos como objectivos centrais: - combater a info-exclusão, através de políticas de formação específicas e da criação de um sistema que permita a disponibilização de computadores reciclados; - assegurar o acesso dos cidadãos com necessidades especiais à Sociedade da Informação; - assegurar a existência de pontos públicos de acesso à Internet em locais descentralizados de fácil acesso ao cidadão; - pugnar no sentido de Portugal atingir elevados índices de desempenho ao nível dos indicadores comparativos da União Europeia. ECONOMIA DIGITAL O impacte dos avanços tecnológicos associados às tecnologias da informação e das comunicações (TICs) vem criando, como é amplamente reconhecido, um progressivo aumento da importância da criação, circulação e utilização de informação no contexto da actividade económica. Uma das vias que contribui para o aumento da produtividade é a crescente utilização das tecnologias da informação. A logística interna, a relação com fornecedores e clientes, as compras por via electrónica, bem como a obtenção de informação económica e financeira são processos que podem ganhar eficiência na era da Sociedade da Informação. Nesta perspectiva, é necessário criar não só mecanismos de estímulo à procura como também à oferta. Apresentam-se nesta área como objectivos primordiais: - criar condições de acesso pelas empresas, nomeadamente para as que têm maior desconhecimento das vantagens da ‘utilização’ da economia digital; - criar mecanismos de estímulo ao desenvolvimento da oferta de serviços na economia digital; - solidificar a presença na Internet das empresas nacionais, nomeadamente das que têm ambições de internacionalização. É nesta perspectiva, fundamental, desenvolver um efectivo apoio à estruturação de “clusters” de indústrias com elevada incorporação de tecnologia avançada; a realização, em conjugação com parceiros, de acções de divulgação para as PME’s sobre formas de acesso à economia digital e o incentivo ao investimento de capital de risco em empresas do sector tecnológico. TECNOLOGIAS DE INFORMAÇÃO E COMUNICAÇÃO Portugal deve ter a ambição de estar ao nível das mais desenvolvidas nações do mundo, também quando se fala de Sociedade da Informação. Sabendo-se que para alcançar este desígnio importa assegurar as mais avançadas plataformas de acesso, definem-se como objectivos para esta área: - generalizar o acesso de todos à Internet, com especial atenção à vertente do acesso por banda larga, a preços acessíveis; - contribuir para o crescimento do sector de tecnologias de informação e comunicação; - assegurar o acesso e a utilização de todas as redes de telecomunicações pela generalidade dos operadores, permitindo a ‘explosão’ de novos produtos e serviços a preços competitivos. Para este efeito, há que desenvolver uma estratégia que promova o surgimento de operadores de serviços e de infra-estruturas alternativas, bem como a abertura, em condições justas, das infraestruturas dominantes: lacete local, preços de interligação e uma concorrência forte e sã no sector de modo a evitar situações de abuso de posição dominante e subsidiação cruzada. SEGURANÇA DIGITAL Com o desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias de comunicação e com a sua utilização generalizada a todos os sectores da sociedade, surgem também novas formas de colocar em causa segurança. Importa, assim, assegurar a segurança ao nível das infra-estruturas de comunicação e da informação em si. Nesta perspectiva, há que planear cuidadosamente a intervenção nesta área através da realização de um Plano de Segurança Digital Nacional, susceptível de: - adoptar soluções eficazes e interoperáveis em matéria de segurança das redes e da informação, baseadas em normas reconhecidas internacionalmente; - lançar campanhas sensibilização e de informação para chamar a atenção para o problema da segurança das redes e da informação e reforçar as noções de segurança no ensino da informática; - reforçar a eficácia dos dispositivos nacionais de intervenção em caso de urgência informática, nomeadamente dos sistemas de alerta de vírus.

Organization for Internet Safety: New Alliance Will Propose Best Practices for Handling Security Vulnerabilities

The Fastest-Growing Tech Companies: These companies outpaced rivals in a combination of cash flow, revenues, earnings, and stock performance: 1 Logitech 2 California Amplifier 3 eBay 4 Activision 5 MedImmune 6 Rambus 7 Avocent 8 White Electronic Designs 9 KLA-Tencor 10 Rofin-Sinar Technologies

On the Road to 3G: New products move toward mobile broadband, but the grand 3G vision may still be years off.

North Korea and Cyberspace: North Korea's recent entry into the global computer network is one of the most surprising developments in Communist agitation and propaganda after the collapse of the Communist bloc. The very idea of a virtual bridge between the smouldering wreck of the Cold War and the new world of global integration awakens great interest among internet users; it excites some and horrifies others. The use of cutting-edge computer and telecommunication technologies by North Korea has enabled this classic example of oriental despotism with its added ugliness of Stalinist political culture to become a competent player in the global information market...

Viruses that also hack computers on the rise: A new internet worm, called BugBear, is spreading across the world and marks a worrying trend in virus design, say experts. The worm contains a Trojan horse program that can collect credit card details, passwords and other private information stored from a computer and send it to a hacker. It is not the first virus to install such a program - in 2001 the Badtrans-B virus had a similar payload. But Graham Cluley, at UK-based Sophos Antivirus told New Scientist: "We're seeing more and more virus writers creating programs to steal user information. There's a crossover happening between virus writing and hacking."

The game is the movie: The gap between playing a console game and the kind of digital experience you get watching a DVD on a high-end television is rapidly closing. [...] According to the research firm Informa Media Group, 2002 should be the best year ever for the industry: the company is forecasting worldwide retail games revenue of more than $31 billion, 70 percent of which is associated with consoles.

7 small improvements with major benefits 1. ONE CAMCORDER THAT CREDIBLY DOUBLES AS A STILL CAMERA 2. FRIDGE MORE FROZEN THAN COLD 3. NOW, BE A WALKING E-BILLBOARD 4. LAUGHING GAS MEETS NINTENDO 5. TOUCHY-FEELY SPEAKERS 6. THE GLASS BUILT FOR BOURBON 7. A MULTI-BRIGHTNESS MONITOR

Sony quiere que la PlayStation pueda grabar imágenes de televisión: La empresa japonesa Sony quiere convertir su popular consola de videojuegos, la PlayStation 2, en todo un centro de ocio doméstico. Después de la conexión a Internet, Sony pretende que la PS2 pueda grabar imágenes de televisión.

Un juez dice que nunca se puede acceder al e-mail del trabajador: Una empresa española de venta de software por Internet, Interbel Software, ha denunciado la parcialidad de un juez de Barcelona que había dictado una sentencia favorable a una trabajadora que estaba de baja laboral y cuyo buzón de correo electrónico, que contenía información de pedidos externos, fue revisado por la compañía. Interbel Software "teme" que este caso cree un "mal precedente" para el desarrollo de la Sociedad de la Información, "ya que las empresas acabarán dando acceso a Internet y correo electrónico únicamente a tres o cuatro empleados directivos, privando al resto del personal el poder acceder a dichas herramientas de trabajo".

Piqué anuncia rebajas de un 10% para las tarifas de ADSL: El ministro de Ciencia y Tecnología, Josep Piqué, ha anunciado hoy que esta misma semana presentará medidas de reforma para mejorar el sector de la telefonía fija, entre las cuales citó la bajada de un 2% en 2003 del conjunto de tarifas telefónicas y la congelación de las tarifas metropolitanas. El plan también prevé una reducción del 10% de las tarifas para el ADSL.

You have mail: 31 billion a day Email may grow out of practical control within three years, research from IDC has warned. The analyst organisation predicts that more than 60 billion emails will be sent every day by 2006. The report, "Worldwide Email Usage Forecast, 2002-2006: Know What's Coming Your Way", puts the current daily email count at 31 billion.

Web Site Defacements Hit All-Time High: The number of Web site defacements has reached an all-time high, with over 9000 attacks this month, according to London security consultancy mi2g. The number is 54 percent higher than August's figure of 5830 defacements, which was itself a record high, mi2g says.

Steal Your [Computer] Interface: A History

Judge: Cancer Victim Can't Sue: In a victory for the wireless phone industry, a federal judge ruled Monday that a Maryland doctor does not have enough evidence to sue Motorola and others for his brain cancer, which he claims was caused by cell-phone radiation. Cellphone: A Convenience, a Hazard or Both? [Comparativo?...] Report Adds to Evidence of Dangers of Second-Hand Smoke: The tobacco industry opposed the classification [Environmental Protection Agency has declared environmental tobacco smoke a Class A carcinogen, along with radon and asbestos], arguing that there was insufficient evidence to link tobacco smoking with the nearly 4,000 lung cancer deaths of nonsmokers in the United States each year.

Telemóveis: "UMTS deve ser em Janeiro": A Vodafone Telecel decidiu que não irá entregar à Anacom - Autoridade Nacional das Comunicações qualquer pedido de adiamento do lançamento do serviço da terceira geração de telemóveis em tecnologia UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecomunication System). "O UMTS deve arrancar em Janeiro do próximo ano, devendo os operadores ficar obrigados a um mínimo de cobertura", afirmou ao DN a porta-voz da empresa de telecomunicações. "Esse mínimo poderia ser 25% da cobertura inicialmente prevista".