Do navigation systems distract? Drivers who use video navigation systems insist they do not distract them and want to be able to use them in more ways while on the move, says a new study by consultant J.D. Power and Associates. The drivers' opinion is opposite that of federal safety officials, who believe it is "ill-advised" to make navigation systems easier for drivers to use while moving.

ADSL, the Next Generation: ADSL2 is inching closing to being a working reality. Clearly, the new standard offers some nice improvements to the design and development of ADSL equipment. But will it challenge VDSL services?

Primer ataque de hackers contra redes GPRS: La compañía T-Mobile ha reconocido que aproximadamente 100 de sus clientes estadounidenses han sido blanco de ataques de hackers mediante la red GPRS.

A Move to Muzzle E-Mail: A court may decide if a fired employee's mass messaging to Intel workers is legal or electronic 'trespassing' on the firm's system.

E-mail warning for workers: Office workers are being warned to be careful about the information they put in "out of office" e-mail messages. According to the technology industry body the Corporate IT Forum, some of its 120 members have reported that criminals are buying up lists of e-mail addresses to find out details of holiday absences.

Google Future Plans: only about 3% of searches use the advanced search form [...]and about 10% of queries have misspellings.

Newspaper Web visitors go to Monster to job search: In 60 of 64 metro markets surveyed during the first nine months of this year, those who regularly visit newspaper Web sites are more inclined to go to Monster than to the employment section of the daily newspaper sites they visit regularly, the report says.

Price Is Limiting Demand for Broadband: Only about 15 percent of American households currently subscribe to broadband service — or fast Internet access — despite the fact that 70 percent of households have the technical option of doing so. And analysts do not expect the majority of homes to have broadband access anytime for at least five years.

Screenage wasteland? I have no statistics at hand, but my guess is that there have never been as many video game advertisements flooding the airwaves as there are right now. It's the result of a combination of factors

Brussels calls for more competition in the broadband internet market: The Brussels authorities are eager to initiate legal proceedings against several Member States, including Germany, Spain and the UK, if the market for broadband internet services is not opened to competition. The level of new operators' access to EU lines, which currently stands at 0.5 per cent is depriving consumers of more choice, which in turn especially affects the broadband market. The national incumbents still have a high proportion; around 90 per cent of the local calls from fixed lines market.

Clothes Make the Network: Wearable computers create ad-hoc wireless communities (by Howard Rheingold)

CD, DVD: menaces sur la copie privée: Graver ses propres compilations à partir de ses CD, extraire son morceau favori d'un disque pour l'écouter sur son ordinateur ou encore dupliquer un DVD pour en disposer à la fois chez soi et dans sa maison de campagne : autant de pratiques très répandues, et parfaitement légales, que le gouvernement s'apprête à proscrire de fait.

Video game college is 'boot camp' for designers: DigiPen is the only accredited school offering a four-year degree in making video games, and it's fast becoming the Harvard among joystick-clenching students fresh out of high school. No wonder: Even while the economy struggles, the video game industry has become one of the fastest-growing forms of media entertainment: - Video game sales exceeded the movie industry's annual box office draw last year by $1 billion. - The current video game hit, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, sold more than 1.4 million copies at an average $48 apiece in its first three days. That $70 million windfall easily puts it in the ranks of a blockbuster movie. - The popularity of NFL video games has given longtime TV football announcer John Madden celebrity status among teens and young adults. - Designers can make $50,000 a year right out of college and twice as much if they are part of a team that produces a hit video game.

Fun With Google's APIs: Building Web Service Applications With the Google API (Prerequisites: Developers need to be familiar with Java, and will need an Internet connection to access the Google service. An understanding of Web Services is not required to use the API.)

Internet Hate-Speech Ban Called 'Chilling': Council of Europe's Internet restrictions raise uneasy questions about civil rights online If European countries find unacceptable material on an American-based Web site, they cannot expect American courts to block access to the material because it would be protected here by the First Amendment, says Paula Bruening, staff counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology. "As disturbing as this kind of speech is, it is protected by the First Amendment," Bruening says. "Our vision of the Internet is a free exchange of ideas, but Europe takes a different approach. What we're seeing here is a cultural clash."

Does Free Linux Have Hidden Costs? IDC study says Windows is cheaper than Linux for common business tasks. [04.12.02] IDC study shows Windows servers cheaper than Linux: Microsoft Corp. , fearful of being undercut in the market for server software by free offerings based on Linux, Monday released the results of a sponsored study that concludes Windows 2000 is generally cheaper for businesses to run and support.

España, a la cola de la UE en cuento a hogars conectaos a Internet: El país de la UE con mayor penetración de Internet es Holanda, con el 65,5 por ciento de sus hogares conectados a la Red, ligeramente por delante de Dinamarca (64,5 por ciento), Suecia (64,2 por ciento), Luxemburgo (55 por ciento) y Finlandia (53,7 por ciento). El resto de países tienen menos de la mitad de sus hogares con Internet, caso de Austria, con el 49,1%, Irlanda (47,9%), Reino Unido (45,0%), Alemania (43,7 por ciento), Bélgica (35,5 por ciento), Italia (35,4 por ciento), Portugal (30,8 por ciento) y España (29,5 por ciento). El país con menor desarrollo de Internet en sus hogares es Grecia, donde sólo el 9,2 por ciento de las casas tiene acceso a la Red

Cell Phones and Driving a Lethal Mix, Study Says: The devices are linked to 2,600 annual fatalities, up from 1,000 two years ago Harvard study finds cost of cell phone accidents equals benefit of calls on the road: Researchers say increased cell phone use has led to more crashes caused by drivers on the phone, but the value people place on being able to call from the road roughly equals the accidents' cost.

Illustrative Risks to the Public in the Use of Computer Systems and Related Technology

The $19,450 Phone: ''Sometimes even I slip up and call it a phone,'' says Frank Nuovo, 41, a founder of Vertu and its creative director, after he greets me in the client suite. ''Yes, in its core functionality, it is a phone. But once you understand the experience, you'll see that it is - well, obviously, an instrument.''

Twenty minds on tech's future...on five rapidly evolving technology sectors: security, Web services, open source, personal technology and wireless communications.

Microsoft Antitrust Case in Europe Takes New Turn: A top European Commission official has left to join Microsoft, just weeks before he was due to give his opinion on the European antitrust lawsuit against the company. [...] The official, Detlef Eckert, is taking three years' unpaid leave from his senior post in the information society directorate within the European Commission to work for Microsoft. His duties at the commission included overseeing competition rulings, although he did not work in the antitrust division itself.

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"