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walktalker · 08-10-01, 04:40 PM

INS Culls Foreign Student Info
Government officials who want personal information about foreign students attending schools in the United States will soon be able to get such data with the click of a mouse. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is developing a database, called the Student Exchange Visitor Information System, to centralize international student records from schools around the country. Implementation of the technology will begin at 12 schools in the Boston area this month, and will be nationwide by 2003.
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,47353,00.html

Mitnick Warns Other 'Scapegoats'
The world's most notorious hacker says the government should focus on securing its computer systems rather than snooping on citizens. Kevin Mitnick, who spent four-and-a-half years behind bars for breaking into the computer systems of telephone companies, stresses that hackers should take extreme care these days given the sensitive political environment and the new laws defining many hacks as acts of terrorism. He also warned that any hacker could win the "scapegoat sweepstakes" at any time, receiving a harsh sentence to serve as an example to other hackers.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47354,00.html

Afghanistan, on 50 Websites a Day
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the international spotlight has been trained on Afghanistan, the Central Asian country notorious for housing one of the most repressive regimes on the planet as well as suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden. But how much do most people really know about Afghanistan? A little digging on the Web sheds light on the enigmatic nation. Because the Taliban has outlawed the Internet for being obscene and anti-Islamic, the following sites are all hosted outside Afghanistan.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47243,00.html

SlugBot: Enemy of Slugs
In the near future, the very mention of SlugBot could send waves of terror through the slug community, while farmers will sing its praises. A prototype robot capable of hunting down over 100 slugs an hour and using their rotting bodies to generate electricity is being developed by engineers at the University of West England's Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory. The SlugBot is an attempt to build the world's first fully autonomous robot. When completed, the SlugBot will be the first robot to work completely independent of human care. It won't even need help to recharge its batteries.
http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,47156,00.html

Music Labels Not Yet in Tune
Six months ago, Michael Downing watched his digital music company die. Like other digital music companies that launched during the frenzy last year, Downing believed Musicbank would be able to deliver entertainment to a mass market. Instead he found out it couldn't deliver anything to anybody. The five major record labels were unable to deliver many of their songs to Musicbank, the fledgling locker service, because nobody was quite sure how to license music to digital startups without inviting a spate of lawsuits. Seemingly overnight, venture capitalists' purse strings were drawn tight. So when those same five record labels announced last week that they were going to begin working together on two new subscription services, something didn't seem right. If the major labels can solve the licensing problems, it could wind up beneficial for small companies as well.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,47318,00.html

Nuke 'Em From On High
Following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was questioned on ABC television's This Week program about the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons in the expected conflicts to come. In practiced Pentagonese, Rumsfeld deftly avoided answering the question of whether the use of tactical nuclear weapons could be ruled out. Though large "theater" thermonuclear devices -- doomsday bombs -- don't fit the Bush administration's war on terrorism, smaller tactical nukes do not seem out of the question in the current mindset of the Defense Department.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,47319,00.html

Dirty tricks of hunt for al-Qaida cash
It would be every computer hacker’s dream. Working from home, playing the usual games, except this time breaking into computers alongside U.S. intelligence forces — hunting down Osama bin Laden’s money through cyberspace. A German hacker claims his pals have done just that. And while most experts are skeptical of his claim, they concede that finding al-Qaida funds tucked away in banks around the world might require a few dirty digital tricks — either from inside the government or by “free-lancers.”
http://www.msnbc.com/news/638639.asp

NASA's new frontier: Selling space
When a Russian spaceship flew to the international space station last spring, a millionaire tourist wasn't the only commercial payload. The Russians -- ever on the lookout for a quick buck -- also delivered a crispy-crust salami pizza on behalf of Pizza Hut. And a pair of talking picture frames personally dedicated to the two dads on board, courtesy of RadioShack. And a March 2001 issue of Popular Mechanics, compliments of the magazine. Now, NASA is about to jump on the space-for-sale bandwagon.
http://europe.cnn.com/2001/TECH/spac....ap/index.html

Bar Codes May Aid Blood Testing
Microscopic particles formed into bar codes may enable medical workers to identify hundreds of different proteins in a single drop of blood, leading to faster and more accurate lab tests. In a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, scientists report that the micro bar codes, similar to the system stores use to electronically identify products at the cash register, are made by forming metallic atoms into rods so small that it takes 20 to span a human hair. Michael J. Natan, chief technical officer of SurroMed Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., and a co-author of the study, said atoms of gold, silver, copper and other metals are assembled in banded patterns in the rods.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...s%2Dtechnology

Listen.com Adds Indie Labels To Subscription Service
Online music services company Listen.com today said that is has signed its first licensing deals for recordings that could be served up through its upcoming Rhapsody music distribution platform. The privately held San Francisco, Calif., company said agreements have been reached with a number of independent record labels, including Alligator Records, Bar/None Records, Lost Cat Records, Bloodshot Records and more than a half-dozen other outfits. Company spokesman Matt Graves told Newsbytes that Listen.com's Rhapsody service, to launch later this fall, targets potential distribution partners looking for a way to deliver subscription-based music services to their customers.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170927.html

AOL Stops One Security Breach, Fails To Stop Another
America Online has fixed a security hole that for years allowed a cadre of cognoscenti hackers to create bogus AOL accounts and hack away in relative obscurity, but has yet to patch a little-known vulnerability that allows anyone with an AOL account to switch many phone customers' long-distance providers. According to information obtained by Newsbytes, the exploit allows the switcher to view the victim's calling and billing records – all without ever notifying the victim or asking his or her permission. The method for creating a ghost AOL account has become something of an open secret among the subculture of more sophisticated AOL-hacker types, but the process for doing so is fairly straightforward.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170924.html

Terrorist Attacks Can't Be Blamed For Everything
You got a good idea of how corporations could blame their problems on the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters when AOL Time Warner Inc. announced a few days ago that it is not going to earn as much money as expected in large part because of "the impact on its business of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." "No financial impact can compare to the terrible suffering and loss of life inflicted by the vicious attacks," said chief executive Gerald M. Levin, as he lowered the company's earnings targets. Actually, AOL Time Warner wasn't going to hit its numbers anyway, analysts generally agree. The marriage of Washington's most successful high-tech company and the New York media company hasn't proved as propitious as hoped. One of the many difficulties is that the advertising market was bad before the attacks and then worsened.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170921.html

German Hacker Launches 'Kill.net' In Anti-Terrorism Effort
Kim Schmitz, the German hacker and businessman who has made headlines recently by declaring a hacking war on terrorism, has launched a new Web site as part of his efforts. The Web site, http://www.kill.net , was launched Sunday at just about the same time that the U.S. and U.K. launched the much-anticipated first military attack against Osama bin Laden's based Qaeda network and Afghanistan's Taliban government. Bin Laden is believed to be the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. Schmitz said he will use the Web site to help recruit hackers for his newly formed organization YIHAT (Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terror). The Web site also will be used to publicize YIHAT, deliver information about its activities and will have a forum for hackers to communicate.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170902.html

More news later on

08-10-01, 04:40 PM	#2
walktalker The local newspaper man Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Montreal Posts: 2,036	Yup more news INS Culls Foreign Student Info Government officials who want personal information about foreign students attending schools in the United States will soon be able to get such data with the click of a mouse. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is developing a database, called the Student Exchange Visitor Information System, to centralize international student records from schools around the country. Implementation of the technology will begin at 12 schools in the Boston area this month, and will be nationwide by 2003. http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,47353,00.html Mitnick Warns Other 'Scapegoats' The world's most notorious hacker says the government should focus on securing its computer systems rather than snooping on citizens. Kevin Mitnick, who spent four-and-a-half years behind bars for breaking into the computer systems of telephone companies, stresses that hackers should take extreme care these days given the sensitive political environment and the new laws defining many hacks as acts of terrorism. He also warned that any hacker could win the "scapegoat sweepstakes" at any time, receiving a harsh sentence to serve as an example to other hackers. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47354,00.html Afghanistan, on 50 Websites a Day Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the international spotlight has been trained on Afghanistan, the Central Asian country notorious for housing one of the most repressive regimes on the planet as well as suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden. But how much do most people really know about Afghanistan? A little digging on the Web sheds light on the enigmatic nation. Because the Taliban has outlawed the Internet for being obscene and anti-Islamic, the following sites are all hosted outside Afghanistan. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47243,00.html SlugBot: Enemy of Slugs In the near future, the very mention of SlugBot could send waves of terror through the slug community, while farmers will sing its praises. A prototype robot capable of hunting down over 100 slugs an hour and using their rotting bodies to generate electricity is being developed by engineers at the University of West England's Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory. The SlugBot is an attempt to build the world's first fully autonomous robot. When completed, the SlugBot will be the first robot to work completely independent of human care. It won't even need help to recharge its batteries. http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,47156,00.html Music Labels Not Yet in Tune Six months ago, Michael Downing watched his digital music company die. Like other digital music companies that launched during the frenzy last year, Downing believed Musicbank would be able to deliver entertainment to a mass market. Instead he found out it couldn't deliver anything to anybody. The five major record labels were unable to deliver many of their songs to Musicbank, the fledgling locker service, because nobody was quite sure how to license music to digital startups without inviting a spate of lawsuits. Seemingly overnight, venture capitalists' purse strings were drawn tight. So when those same five record labels announced last week that they were going to begin working together on two new subscription services, something didn't seem right. If the major labels can solve the licensing problems, it could wind up beneficial for small companies as well. http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,47318,00.html Nuke 'Em From On High Following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was questioned on ABC television's This Week program about the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons in the expected conflicts to come. In practiced Pentagonese, Rumsfeld deftly avoided answering the question of whether the use of tactical nuclear weapons could be ruled out. Though large "theater" thermonuclear devices -- doomsday bombs -- don't fit the Bush administration's war on terrorism, smaller tactical nukes do not seem out of the question in the current mindset of the Defense Department. http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,47319,00.html Dirty tricks of hunt for al-Qaida cash It would be every computer hacker’s dream. Working from home, playing the usual games, except this time breaking into computers alongside U.S. intelligence forces — hunting down Osama bin Laden’s money through cyberspace. A German hacker claims his pals have done just that. And while most experts are skeptical of his claim, they concede that finding al-Qaida funds tucked away in banks around the world might require a few dirty digital tricks — either from inside the government or by “free-lancers.” http://www.msnbc.com/news/638639.asp NASA's new frontier: Selling space When a Russian spaceship flew to the international space station last spring, a millionaire tourist wasn't the only commercial payload. The Russians -- ever on the lookout for a quick buck -- also delivered a crispy-crust salami pizza on behalf of Pizza Hut. And a pair of talking picture frames personally dedicated to the two dads on board, courtesy of RadioShack. And a March 2001 issue of Popular Mechanics, compliments of the magazine. Now, NASA is about to jump on the space-for-sale bandwagon. http://europe.cnn.com/2001/TECH/spac....ap/index.html Bar Codes May Aid Blood Testing Microscopic particles formed into bar codes may enable medical workers to identify hundreds of different proteins in a single drop of blood, leading to faster and more accurate lab tests. In a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, scientists report that the micro bar codes, similar to the system stores use to electronically identify products at the cash register, are made by forming metallic atoms into rods so small that it takes 20 to span a human hair. Michael J. Natan, chief technical officer of SurroMed Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., and a co-author of the study, said atoms of gold, silver, copper and other metals are assembled in banded patterns in the rods. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...s%2Dtechnology Listen.com Adds Indie Labels To Subscription Service Online music services company Listen.com today said that is has signed its first licensing deals for recordings that could be served up through its upcoming Rhapsody music distribution platform. The privately held San Francisco, Calif., company said agreements have been reached with a number of independent record labels, including Alligator Records, Bar/None Records, Lost Cat Records, Bloodshot Records and more than a half-dozen other outfits. Company spokesman Matt Graves told Newsbytes that Listen.com's Rhapsody service, to launch later this fall, targets potential distribution partners looking for a way to deliver subscription-based music services to their customers. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170927.html AOL Stops One Security Breach, Fails To Stop Another America Online has fixed a security hole that for years allowed a cadre of cognoscenti hackers to create bogus AOL accounts and hack away in relative obscurity, but has yet to patch a little-known vulnerability that allows anyone with an AOL account to switch many phone customers' long-distance providers. According to information obtained by Newsbytes, the exploit allows the switcher to view the victim's calling and billing records – all without ever notifying the victim or asking his or her permission. The method for creating a ghost AOL account has become something of an open secret among the subculture of more sophisticated AOL-hacker types, but the process for doing so is fairly straightforward. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170924.html Terrorist Attacks Can't Be Blamed For Everything You got a good idea of how corporations could blame their problems on the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters when AOL Time Warner Inc. announced a few days ago that it is not going to earn as much money as expected in large part because of "the impact on its business of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." "No financial impact can compare to the terrible suffering and loss of life inflicted by the vicious attacks," said chief executive Gerald M. Levin, as he lowered the company's earnings targets. Actually, AOL Time Warner wasn't going to hit its numbers anyway, analysts generally agree. The marriage of Washington's most successful high-tech company and the New York media company hasn't proved as propitious as hoped. One of the many difficulties is that the advertising market was bad before the attacks and then worsened. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170921.html German Hacker Launches 'Kill.net' In Anti-Terrorism Effort Kim Schmitz, the German hacker and businessman who has made headlines recently by declaring a hacking war on terrorism, has launched a new Web site as part of his efforts. The Web site, http://www.kill.net , was launched Sunday at just about the same time that the U.S. and U.K. launched the much-anticipated first military attack against Osama bin Laden's based Qaeda network and Afghanistan's Taliban government. Bin Laden is believed to be the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. Schmitz said he will use the Web site to help recruit hackers for his newly formed organization YIHAT (Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terror). The Web site also will be used to publicize YIHAT, deliver information about its activities and will have a forum for hackers to communicate. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170902.html More news later on __________________ This post was sponsored by Netcoco, who wants cookies, cookies, cookies and, you guessed it, more cookies