Cybercrime Victims Hit Back -- Online
The situation is everybody's worst nightmare. At best, it requires hours on the phone with your credit-card company. At worst, it could mean a protracted legal battle to reclaim your financial identity. In all cases, consumers feel frustrated, angry, and powerless. In a 2000 report entitled "Nowhere to Turn," the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse found that 55% of the fraud and identity-theft cases reported remained unsolved after an average of 44 months, or almost four years. Victims said they spent between $30 and $2,000 on costs related to identity theft, not including lawyers' fees. The average loss was $808. Rose, however, is determined not to be left holding the bag. Rather than let his bank handle the matter, he called each of the online merchants where illegal purchases were made and explained his problem. Together, Rose and the vendors were able to trace the computer from which the order came, confirming that it wasn't from his computer. So far, he has prevented more than $1,100 in sophisticated camera equipment from being shipped to an unknown person in Indonesia.
http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...21010_3368.htm
Chatty worm hits MSN Messenger users
A worm spread among MSN Messenger users by fooling them into downloading an infectious file from the Internet, antivirus firms said on Thursday. Known as Henpeck, the worm used MSN's chat network to send messages containing a link to a malicious online file, called BR2002.exe. People who clicked the link triggered a download of the file and inadvertently ran the infectious program. The worm then sent instant messages to everyone on a victim's buddy list. "Recipients of the message are not automatically infected with the worm," said antivirus company Trend Micro in its advisory. "This happens when the recipient clicks the URL, which downloads the worm and executes it in the system."
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-961693.html?tag=cd_mh
Can software catch a killer?
A high-tech tool known as geographic profiling is playing a key role in the investigation into the Washington-area sniper shootings. Investigators are using the software to try to pinpoint the killer's home base. Law enforcement officials are hoping the system, one of the latest crime-fighting techniques, will help them home in on a suspect, who so far has shot and killed at least six people in the past week while they performed mundane tasks such as gassing up a car, mowing the lawn, or loading packages into a trunk. The Rigel system, created by Environmental Criminology Research (ECRI), works on the assumption that a person performing a task will expend the least amount of effort possible to complete it. That is, criminals don't want to go farther than necessary to commit a crime, but they don't want to do it too close to home, where they could be recognized.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961684.html?tag=cd_mh
Maxtor works to simplify data backup
Hard-drive maker Maxtor wants to transform the pedestrian activity of backing up files into something racy. The Milpitas, Calif.-based company has developed a new feature designed to let computer users back up files, folders and drives with the touch of a button. The feature, OneTouch, is built in to a new line of external hard drives, the Personal Storage 5000 family. Backup starts when a user presses a button on one of the drives. The units come with built-in USB 2.0/1.1 and FireWire interfaces, along with 3.5-inch hard drives, the same type used in desktop PCs. Maxtor's development of the feature reflects the growing need for hard-drive makers to explore new niches in their ultra-competitive market. The business increasingly yields slimmer margins despite rocketing drive capacities, and several big name companies have expressed their disenchantment. Fujitsu has abandoned the field, and IBM has finalized plans to spin off its hard drive business in a joint venture with Hitachi.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-961618.html?tag=cd_mh
Sony Aibo to spread more puppy love
Sony is planning to train Aibo, its robot dog, to be able to pick you out of a crowd. Sony's Entertainment Robot America division said Tuesday it will introduce Aibo Recognition, a new application for its newest Aibo ERS-210A and ERS-210 models. The software will grant the mechanical dog the ability to recognize its owner's name, voice and face, as well as automatically recharge itself. The new features are part of an effort to make Aibo's actions more realistic.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-961536.html?tag=cd_mh
Xbox crackdown irks "mod chip" fans
Many game players have been left in the lurch as a result of Microsoft's apparently successful efforts to shut down one of the leading sellers of Xbox hacking tools. Customers of Hong Kong-based Web retailer Lik-Sang report they've heard nothing regarding dozens of orders they placed with the site shortly before it went offline last month. Lik-Sang was one of the top worldwide retailers of "mod chips," devices that when soldered to a game console's main circuit board will disable security components. The chips typically allow a game machine to play legally and illegally copied discs, run unauthorized software, and play game discs intended for other geographic regions.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-961498.html?tag=cd_mh
Win a Job, Not a Cruise -- on TV
The battered Argentine economy has spawned a new type of television game show: Instead of competing for frost-free refrigerators or Caribbean cruises, contestants vie for jobs. In Argentina, where unemployment has jumped to a record 21.5 percent, Recursos Humanos (Human Resources) is aired every evening at 7 p.m. and gets twice the ratings as the soap opera it replaced. It works like this: Two candidates are pre-selected to appear on the program, where they undergo a series of quizzes and interviews to determine their levels of skill and desperation. The jobs they compete for tend to be blue-collar positions, such as cashiers or mechanics, and home viewers call in to vote for their favorite candidates.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,55686,00.html
Army Brews Potions That Protect
The U.S. Army's new methods for protecting against chemical and biological attacks read like a shopping list from the cosmetics counter. An array of defensive and decontaminating foams, sprays, powders and lotions are all being developed to shield soldiers and equipment from mustard gas, VX, sarin, anthrax and other poisons. But how many of these new measures will be available for an incursion into Iraq? Several of the options -- like a Teflon-esque skin cream that protects against chemical agents -- aren't fully tested. And the Army didn't bother to order one of the decontaminants that is ready to go -- a spray known as DF-200 -- until a few weeks ago.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,55685,00.html
FCC Rejects Satellite Merger
In an expected move, the Federal Communications Commission announced Thursday that it would not approve EchoStar’s plan to acquire rival Directv. FCC commissioners said the planned merger –- which would combine the two dominant U.S. satellite television providers -- did not meet conditions for fostering competition in its present form. Commissioner Kevin J. Martin said the FCC’s order gives the companies 30 days to amend their application to include major revisions that address the anti-competitive impact of their proposed merger. Martin said outside groups have provided several suggestions for meeting these conditions, including possibly divesting enough spectrum to allow another provider to compete nationally.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,55707,00.html
Art: What's Original, Anyway?
If current copyright laws had been on the books when jazz musicians were borrowing riffs from other artists in the 1930s and Looney Tunes illustrators were creating cartoons in the 1940s, entire art genres such as hip-hop, collage and Pop Art might never have existed. The debate over whether artists can use copyrighted materials entered the national spotlight this week as the Supreme Court heard opening arguments in Eldred v. Ashcroft, a case in which plaintiffs are seeking to overturn the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act. To acknowledge this landmark case, an exhibit will celebrate "degenerate art" in a corporate age: art and ideas on the fringes of intellectual property law.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55592,00.html
What to Wear: Why Not a Computer?
Fashion shows are occasions for watching gorgeous models parade across stages in one-of-a-kind items that most of us would not be caught dead wearing. The one presented here last night at the sixth annual International Symposium on Wearable Computers was no exception. The gear ranged from the sublime -- a sleek hooded windbreaker from Germany's Infineon Technologies AG with an implanted MP3 player -- to the ridiculous: a Batman-styled belt with a rod holding a PDA at arm's length from the models' torsos. Also on display at the symposium were wrist-mounted scanners and PCs with wired and wireless finger controllers for data input.
http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,55669,00.html
Why Online Age Checks Don't Work
Habitual porn surfers are now used to having to type in a credit card number the first time they visit a site to prove they're over 18. The credit card gateway as age verification standard has been in place ever since the late 1990s, when the Communications Decency Act (CDA) and the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) threatened porn publishers with jail time and fines if they transmitted obscene material to minors. Yet as any savvy porn surfer will tell you, the age verification systems don't necessarily work. Even companies that develop the systems acknowledge this fact.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55338,00.html
Neutralizing Diesel's Idle Threat
While diesel-powered buses are great for taking little Christopher to school, the Environmental Protection Agency says their polluting engines are a growing threat to kids' health. A startup company is developing a cleaner alternative: the first fuel cell to run on ordinary diesel fuel. Diesel vehicles have long been considered a pariah because of their noise and air pollution. In September, the Northwest office of the EPA sent a letter to schools requesting that bus drivers stop idling their engines while on school grounds because "exposure to diesel exhaust can cause lung damage, increased frequency and severity of asthma attacks, and increased cancer risks."
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,55646,00.html
Saturn-Like Planet Found, You Can Spot the Star it Orbits
One of the brightest stars in the night sky appears to harbor a Saturn-sized planet and possibly other elements similar to our own solar system, astronomers announced Thursday. The star, Fomalhaut, is the 17th brightest and easily found with the unaided eye. It is a relatively young star, still shrouded in the dust of its birth. Fomalhaut sits in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish). It can spotted in the southern sky using the map on the right side of this page. The name "Fomalhaut" (pronounced "Fo-mal-ought") derives from the Arabic name for this star, Fum al Hut meaning "The Fish's Mouth." Astronomers said the Fomalhaut system suddenly looks very familiar and might even contain an Earth-like planet.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...et_021010.html
Lemon juice 'is HIV-killing spermicide'
Laboratory tests show that lemon juice is a potent destroyer of both HIV and sperm, Australian researchers say. If planned tests in primates and people are successful, lemon juice could be ideal for women without easy access to safe barrier contraceptives, such as condoms, says the team at Melbourne University, led by Roger Short. But experts in anti-AIDS medications warn that the safety of using the juice internally and its efficacy in people are as yet unknown. Short says a solution of 10 per cent lemon juice reduced HIV activity in a lab sample by 1000 per cent. And half a teaspoon of the juice wiped out two teaspoons of sperm in 30 seconds. The high acidity of the juice is responsible for killing HIV and sperm.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992910
Food scraps could help power homes
A battery that runs on scraps of food could fuel a battery providing electricity to top up your home's supply, say UK researchers. Although such "microbial fuel cells" (MFCs) have been developed in the past, they have always proved extremely inefficient and expensive. Now Chris Melhuish and technologists at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol have come up with a simplified MFC that costs as little as £10 to make. Right now, their fuel cell runs only on sugar cubes, since these produce almost no waste when broken down, but they aim to move on to carrot power. "It has to be able to use raw materials, rather than giving it a refined fuel," says Melhuish.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992899
RetSpan concludes important agreements in order to fight against online piracy
RetSpan recently concluded important agreements in order to fight against online piracy of music and video files on peer-to-peer networks. These networks are used every day by tens of millions of file-sharers who swap billions of copyrighted files each month, thanks to popular software like KaZaA, Morpheus or Grokster. For media companies, illegal copying represents copyright infringements and is seen as piracy of digital content. RetSpan develops several tools with the aim of helping media groups to face stealing of copyright works. One of these tools is used to track and identify illegal file-sharers. To support and assist with this activity, RetSpan recently signed important agreements with the Réseaux IP Européens, the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre and the American Registry for Internet Numbers.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/article.../10092002i.php
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