ICANN may limit public input
As the U.S. government relinquishes oversight of the Internet, the private organization taking its place is grappling with how much public participation to permit.The debate over the role and influence of the general Internet community took center stage as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) held its quarterly meetings in Montevideo. The four-day session ends Monday. Heated discussions raised questions about whether private business interests take precedence over the average Internet user's concerns. Critics also complained of a proposal to let only domain-name owners vote for the group's officers.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh
Hackers win high stakes at gambling sites
Call it the gambling industry's dirty little secret. Hackers are sabotaging online casinos with greater regularity, security and gambling experts say, in some cases scamming large sums of money from the gaming companies. Last week, CryptoLogic, a Canadian software company that develops online casino games, said a hacker had cracked one of its gaming servers, corrupting the play of craps and video slots so that players could not lose. The company said that for a few hours during the disruption in late August, 140 gamblers racked up winnings of $1.9 million.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh
His Memory Returns, Byte by Byte
Many people have referred to the Internet as a lifesaver, but very few invest the expression with the same ferocious intensity as Pascal Triomphe. "There are no two ways about it –- I would not be here today were it not for computers and the Internet," he said. If that sounds like a classic overstatement, Triomphe's story offers convincing evidence to the contrary. In 1997, this one-time professional stuntman was violently assaulted in a Parisian suburb. As a result of a head injury suffered in the attack, he lost his memory, his identity and, ultimately, his will to live.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,46456,00.html
Kids, Academics Share Internet2
Elementary school kids probably have seen images of the space shuttle on television but few have experienced the kind of up-close look that is possible only with a scanning electron microscope. That all could change with the help of Internet2. University of Michigan research scientist John Mansfield hopes to use a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to show students a tile from the space shuttle -- glass fibers crimped together that resemble "a bowl of spaghetti if you break one open." Mansfield believes such experiences will provide kids a better understanding of science and how it relates to them.
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,45864,00.html
Wi-Fi Cost May Be Sky High
Customers with the capability to tap into wireless Internet networks at certain universities and Starbucks coffee shops will soon be able to browse the Web five times as quickly. But it will cost them. Starting next week, several companies, including Intel, Intersil, Proxim, Atheros and Intermec, will demonstrate the world's first 802.11a products: chip sets, radios, access points and computer cards that will enable people to peruse the Internet at 54 Mbps without any cables or wires.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46451,00.html
"Secret" email at risk from impostors
People using encrypted email can be tricked into sending messages to bogus recipients, a Dutch computer programmer has discovered. The problem lies with PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), a popular program used to encrypt email so that it cannot be read in transit over the internet. It could allow an eavesdropper to impersonate someone else and read their secret messages. "It's not disastrous but it's certainly quite serious," says Brian Gladman, a freelance cryptography expert in the UK. "In a sense it's all a matter of care. If someone is not careful, they could definitely fall foul of this glitch."
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991267
Spy agency plans cryptographic upgrade
The National Security Agency is beginning a 15-year, multibillion-dollar effort to modernize the nation's cryptographic systems, which are rapidly growing obsolete and vulnerable. Cryptographic systems encode messages and include tools such as secure telephones, tactical radios and smart cards. Virtually every federal department and agency — including the military, the White House, intelligence agencies and the State Department — use encryption. But existing encryption algorithms are no longer cutting-edge, and hardware for many systems is becoming obsolete. Replacing them is a top goal for NSA's information assurance directorate, said Michael Jacobs, who heads the directorate.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/fcw1.htm
Nanotech gets in your pants, and soon, your plane
To help soldiers survive, the U.S. Army is developing a new generation of combat uniforms using tiny, doctored fibers that let air through while blocking toxins from chemical and biological weapons. The "chemical protective overgarment," expected to ship in as little as two years, is one of the early uses of nanotechnology: the science of manipulating single atoms and molecules to create new products. While nanotechnology won't be ready to build tiny machines or computer processors for at least 10 years, researchers in materials science are already using it to change the properties of plastics, oils and textiles, giving them breathability, heat-resistance, strength and flexibility.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/0....ap/index.html
Processing power of single cells
One of the oldest forms of life on Earth has been revealed as a natural born computer programmer. Scientists studying a species of single-celled protozoans called Ciliates have found that the organisms are experts at sorting, shuffling and splicing DNA when they reproduce. Some of the repertoire of tricks Ciliates use to untangle their DNA resemble the techniques that computer programmers use to make software more elegant and robust. The researchers believe that by using some of these techniques they can do a better job of harnessing the vast information processing power of DNA.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1535945.stm
Free the Encyclopedias!
Say you are an expert on Fibonacci numbers. Maybe you don't have an academic degree that relates to Fibonacci numbers. Maybe you have never before written about Fibonacci numbers. Still, you love them, you collect them, you dream about them. You've always wanted to write about them. Wikipedia is your chance. All you need do is tap into the Wiki Web site and start writing. You don't even have to give your real name. Or maybe your computer crashes a lot, and you'd like to write about that. The Wikipedia entry called "The Blue Screen of Death" (for the cryptic screen that Windows flashes before it stomps your life) is your chance at fame.
http://www.techreview.com/web/heim/heim090401.asp
The Boringness of Computers
Technologies come and go, but fame is even more fleeting. Back in the 1980s when a few techies with connections to the Defense Department were playing around with computer networks, who cared? It wasn’t until Web browsers made it possible to point and click your way through the Internet that things really got interesting. Likewise, computers in the 1960s rarely made the evening news, but now everybody knows the story of those two kids in a garage who created the first Apple. In each case the technology had become personal. Computing and networking existed before they became popular, and they will continue to exist long after most of us stop thinking about them altogether.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/626004.asp?0si=-
