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walktalker · 03-12-01, 09:46 PM

Who EU Calling a Terrorist?
European lawyers have denounced a European Union proposal to establish a definition of terrorism so broad that it could include workers' strikes or protests against globalization. More than 200 lawyers from nearly every country in the European Union (EU) have signed an appeal urging European Parliament and EU governments to reject a broad definition of terrorism.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,48807,00.html

Sega Game Delivers Virus
Even game consoles aren't safe from computer viruses. In what appears to be the first reported incident of console-to-computer virus crossover, the Japanese-language version of "Atelier Marie," a role-playing game for the Sega Dreamcast games console, is infected with a highly destructive computer virus. Sega Dreamcast games come on CD-ROM discs that can include files readable on a computer's CD drive. The Atelier Marie game includes a screensaver that, once installed on a computer, attempts to infect the user's PC with the W32/Kriz virus.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,48806,00.html

NASA Mulls Shuttle Shuttling
NASA is planning something that would have been unthinkable a decade ago: selling its fleet of space shuttles to a private company. While insisting that no decisions have been made yet, NASA appears to be following the lead of the Russians, who privatized their Mir space station by selling it to a private firm called MirCorp.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48743,00.html

The Great MS Patch Nobody Uses
A free, downloadable update that transforms Microsoft's Outlook into a significantly more secure e-mail application has languished virtually ignored on Microsoft's website for more than a year. Although the majority of recent viral attacks have come compliments of worms that don't rely only on e-mail to spread, the Outlook E-mail Security Update (OESU) can stop or greatly lessen the impact of most malicious code, such as BadTrans and SirCam, if only people would download and install it.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,48756,00.html

Oh Boy, an Indian Controversy
A company, which advertised its product as "new from the United States" in a leading Indian daily, has infuriated many people here, especially women's groups. The firm Gen-Select operates through its website and offers two kinds of kits that claim to help a couple decide the gender of its child: a blue kit, if a couple wants a boy and a pink one if a couple wants a girl.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48764,00.html

Wheaton's Trek to Respectability
Wil Wheaton's years of torture appear to be at an end. Wheaton has long been one of geekdom's favorite whipping boys, taking unending abuse for his role as Wesley Crusher, the whiny, know-it-all teenager on TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation. But now, thanks to a self-coded, shamelessly dorky website, many of the same folks who loathed Wheaton on the show are finding out he's a whole lot like them in real life.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,48586,00.html

Data protection prosecutions 'unlikely'
Enforcement of the Data Protection Act is unlikely to be through prosecution, but the Information Commission will be seeking out firms that break the law. Firms breaching the Data Protection Act 1998 are unlikely to be prosecuted, said David Smith, assistant commissioner at the government's Information Commission, last week. This news will comfort those struggling to get to grips with the new law, which came fully into effect in October, and suggests the commission is now taking a more relaxed view of enforcement.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2100239,00.html

Ground Zero's fires still burning
Almost 12 weeks after the terrorist atrocity at New York's World Trade Center, there is at least one fire still burning in the rubble - it is the longest-burning structural fire in history. Deputy Chief Charles Blaich of the New York City Fire Department would not predict when the last fire might be extinguished. But compared to the situation at the end of September, when aerial thermal images showed the whole of Ground Zero to be a hot spot, conditions today are much safer for the workers clearing the rubble.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991634

Lord of the special effects
Weta crowd supervisor Stephen Regelous has created software, dubbed Massive, that creates realistic crowds. Every individual in the crowd moves in response to stimulus such as terrain, and to the actions of others. The battles in The Return of the King will see hundreds of thousands of these intelligent agents in frame at the same time, Mr Labrie says, stretching the software to its limits. Massive was developed on SGI operating system Irix and has since been ported to open source operating system Linux.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1...220a28,FF.html

"Bear-proof" suit to be put to the test
A Canadian man and a three-metre, 585-kilogramme Kodiak bear will face off on 9 December, in an attempt to test a handmade, purportedly bear-proof suit. The suit and its maker, Troy Hurtubise of North Bay, Ontario, won a 1998 Ig Nobel prize for Safety and Engineering and an entry in the 2002 Guinness Book of World Records for the most expensive research suit ever constructed.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991637

Global IT Services Revenue To Hit $554 Bil In 2001
The current recession and the campaign against terrorism are causing a temporary slowdown in spending on IT (information technology) services, but according to a new study the industry will enjoy double-digit growth from 2003 to 2005. The study, by Gartner's Dataquest unit, estimates worldwide revenue from IT services will total $554 billion this year, a 7.1 percent increase from 2000. The company said the sector's growth will remain in single digits in 2002, but will explode to $865 billion by 2005.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172646.html

Alleged Child Pornographer Not A Terror Suspect
The FBI said it discovered child pornography on the computer of a Saudi man detained last September in the government's terrorism investigation. But the U.S. has since acknowledged that it has no evidence connecting Abdurrahman Koshak to terrorism. Koshak, a citizen of Saudi Arabia currently residing in western Pennsylvania, was among hundreds of people detained by the U.S. as part of its investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172645.html

Microsoft, White House Mum On Security Advisor Post
Neither the White House nor Microsoft Corp. would confirm rumors today that Microsoft Security Chief Howard Schmidt may be leaving his position to serve as a electronic security advisor in the Bush administration. "We've heard that his name is being mentioned for a possible White House position (but) until we hear an official confirmation, he remains very busy in his role as our security chief," Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said today. A White House spokesman would not comment on Schmidt.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172642.html

Bills Would Boost Electronic Security Research Funding
Led by the heads of the House Science Committee, a cadre of lawmakers on Tuesday plan to introduce a pair of bills that would substantially boost federal spending on information-technology (IT) and cyber-security research. "Research is under-funded," Science Committee Communications Director Heidi Tringe said today. "There are very few professionals in the field working specifically on computer security research and this is our (effort) to remedy that."
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172635.html

BadTrans Has AOL Written All Over It
Besides carrying a potent password-stealing payload, the thousands of e-mails infected with the BadTrans.B worm that are received by Internet users every day have another thing in common. They all appear to originate from America Online. Look closely at the detailed headers of a BadTrans.B-infected message - whether the visible "from" line shows the Yahoo.com address of your uncle in Utah or some total stranger's Hotmail address - and you will note that the "received from" header buried in the message almost invariably contains AOL.COM.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172629.html

Standard, Plain-English Privacy Policies Wanted
Only a tiny fraction of Web-wise consumers take the time to read the privacy policies of the Internet sites they frequent, according to two separate surveys released today. The studies show, however, that a majority of consumers would read the notices if they were made more succinct and easier to read. One of the surveys was conducted on behalf of the Privacy Leadership Initiative, a trade group whose members include the Direct Marketing Association, IBM, Dell Computer, Web banner ad giant DoubleClick, and some of the nation's largest credit reporting agencies.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172628.html

Internet Pedophile Warning Campaign Launches In U.K.
The British government has launched a 1.5 million British pound ($2.15 million) ad campaign to tell parents about the dangers of Internet pedophiles. The campaign will center on national newspaper and magazine advertising to encourage parents to "Wise up to the Net." Announcing the campaign this morning, British Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes said that the campaign aims to improve child safety in Internet chat rooms. "Pedophiles are dangerous - not Internet chat rooms," she said.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172620.html

Watchdog Group Launches Web Site To Monitor FEC Enforcement
The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics announced today that it is launching a new Web site designed to keep pressure on federal regulators to aggressively enforce the nation's campaign finance and lobbying laws. The CRP's new FEC Watch project will monitor the enforcement activities of the Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, and congressional ethics committees.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172638.html

New Threats for America
A flood of new terrorist threats prompted the White House today to put the nation on alert for a third time since the Sept. 11 attacks. At White House news conference this afternoon, Office of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge alerted the public that U.S. intelligence sources have picked up an "increased volume and level of activity involving threats of terrorist attacks."
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/u...ert011203.html

Future Power From an Old Engine Idea
In order to develop more fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly power sources of the future, some researchers are turning to a technology of the past. Several companies and developers have begun touting new uses for an engine first developed in 1816 by a Scottish clergyman named Robert Stirling. Although Stirling's engine was initially developed as a safer replacement for the cranky old steam engines of the 19th century, proponents believe that the engine's radically different design will help it become a 21st century wonder.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...dge011130.html

More news later on...

03-12-01, 09:46 PM	#2
walktalker The local newspaper man Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Montreal Posts: 2,036	Who EU Calling a Terrorist? European lawyers have denounced a European Union proposal to establish a definition of terrorism so broad that it could include workers' strikes or protests against globalization. More than 200 lawyers from nearly every country in the European Union (EU) have signed an appeal urging European Parliament and EU governments to reject a broad definition of terrorism. http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,48807,00.html Sega Game Delivers Virus Even game consoles aren't safe from computer viruses. In what appears to be the first reported incident of console-to-computer virus crossover, the Japanese-language version of "Atelier Marie," a role-playing game for the Sega Dreamcast games console, is infected with a highly destructive computer virus. Sega Dreamcast games come on CD-ROM discs that can include files readable on a computer's CD drive. The Atelier Marie game includes a screensaver that, once installed on a computer, attempts to infect the user's PC with the W32/Kriz virus. http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,48806,00.html NASA Mulls Shuttle Shuttling NASA is planning something that would have been unthinkable a decade ago: selling its fleet of space shuttles to a private company. While insisting that no decisions have been made yet, NASA appears to be following the lead of the Russians, who privatized their Mir space station by selling it to a private firm called MirCorp. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48743,00.html The Great MS Patch Nobody Uses A free, downloadable update that transforms Microsoft's Outlook into a significantly more secure e-mail application has languished virtually ignored on Microsoft's website for more than a year. Although the majority of recent viral attacks have come compliments of worms that don't rely only on e-mail to spread, the Outlook E-mail Security Update (OESU) can stop or greatly lessen the impact of most malicious code, such as BadTrans and SirCam, if only people would download and install it. http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,48756,00.html Oh Boy, an Indian Controversy A company, which advertised its product as "new from the United States" in a leading Indian daily, has infuriated many people here, especially women's groups. The firm Gen-Select operates through its website and offers two kinds of kits that claim to help a couple decide the gender of its child: a blue kit, if a couple wants a boy and a pink one if a couple wants a girl. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48764,00.html Wheaton's Trek to Respectability Wil Wheaton's years of torture appear to be at an end. Wheaton has long been one of geekdom's favorite whipping boys, taking unending abuse for his role as Wesley Crusher, the whiny, know-it-all teenager on TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation. But now, thanks to a self-coded, shamelessly dorky website, many of the same folks who loathed Wheaton on the show are finding out he's a whole lot like them in real life. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,48586,00.html Data protection prosecutions 'unlikely' Enforcement of the Data Protection Act is unlikely to be through prosecution, but the Information Commission will be seeking out firms that break the law. Firms breaching the Data Protection Act 1998 are unlikely to be prosecuted, said David Smith, assistant commissioner at the government's Information Commission, last week. This news will comfort those struggling to get to grips with the new law, which came fully into effect in October, and suggests the commission is now taking a more relaxed view of enforcement. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2100239,00.html Ground Zero's fires still burning Almost 12 weeks after the terrorist atrocity at New York's World Trade Center, there is at least one fire still burning in the rubble - it is the longest-burning structural fire in history. Deputy Chief Charles Blaich of the New York City Fire Department would not predict when the last fire might be extinguished. But compared to the situation at the end of September, when aerial thermal images showed the whole of Ground Zero to be a hot spot, conditions today are much safer for the workers clearing the rubble. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991634 Lord of the special effects Weta crowd supervisor Stephen Regelous has created software, dubbed Massive, that creates realistic crowds. Every individual in the crowd moves in response to stimulus such as terrain, and to the actions of others. The battles in The Return of the King will see hundreds of thousands of these intelligent agents in frame at the same time, Mr Labrie says, stretching the software to its limits. Massive was developed on SGI operating system Irix and has since been ported to open source operating system Linux. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1...220a28,FF.html "Bear-proof" suit to be put to the test A Canadian man and a three-metre, 585-kilogramme Kodiak bear will face off on 9 December, in an attempt to test a handmade, purportedly bear-proof suit. The suit and its maker, Troy Hurtubise of North Bay, Ontario, won a 1998 Ig Nobel prize for Safety and Engineering and an entry in the 2002 Guinness Book of World Records for the most expensive research suit ever constructed. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991637 Global IT Services Revenue To Hit $554 Bil In 2001 The current recession and the campaign against terrorism are causing a temporary slowdown in spending on IT (information technology) services, but according to a new study the industry will enjoy double-digit growth from 2003 to 2005. The study, by Gartner's Dataquest unit, estimates worldwide revenue from IT services will total $554 billion this year, a 7.1 percent increase from 2000. The company said the sector's growth will remain in single digits in 2002, but will explode to $865 billion by 2005. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172646.html Alleged Child Pornographer Not A Terror Suspect The FBI said it discovered child pornography on the computer of a Saudi man detained last September in the government's terrorism investigation. But the U.S. has since acknowledged that it has no evidence connecting Abdurrahman Koshak to terrorism. Koshak, a citizen of Saudi Arabia currently residing in western Pennsylvania, was among hundreds of people detained by the U.S. as part of its investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172645.html Microsoft, White House Mum On Security Advisor Post Neither the White House nor Microsoft Corp. would confirm rumors today that Microsoft Security Chief Howard Schmidt may be leaving his position to serve as a electronic security advisor in the Bush administration. "We've heard that his name is being mentioned for a possible White House position (but) until we hear an official confirmation, he remains very busy in his role as our security chief," Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said today. A White House spokesman would not comment on Schmidt. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172642.html Bills Would Boost Electronic Security Research Funding Led by the heads of the House Science Committee, a cadre of lawmakers on Tuesday plan to introduce a pair of bills that would substantially boost federal spending on information-technology (IT) and cyber-security research. "Research is under-funded," Science Committee Communications Director Heidi Tringe said today. "There are very few professionals in the field working specifically on computer security research and this is our (effort) to remedy that." http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172635.html BadTrans Has AOL Written All Over It Besides carrying a potent password-stealing payload, the thousands of e-mails infected with the BadTrans.B worm that are received by Internet users every day have another thing in common. They all appear to originate from America Online. Look closely at the detailed headers of a BadTrans.B-infected message - whether the visible "from" line shows the Yahoo.com address of your uncle in Utah or some total stranger's Hotmail address - and you will note that the "received from" header buried in the message almost invariably contains AOL.COM. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172629.html Standard, Plain-English Privacy Policies Wanted Only a tiny fraction of Web-wise consumers take the time to read the privacy policies of the Internet sites they frequent, according to two separate surveys released today. The studies show, however, that a majority of consumers would read the notices if they were made more succinct and easier to read. One of the surveys was conducted on behalf of the Privacy Leadership Initiative, a trade group whose members include the Direct Marketing Association, IBM, Dell Computer, Web banner ad giant DoubleClick, and some of the nation's largest credit reporting agencies. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172628.html Internet Pedophile Warning Campaign Launches In U.K. The British government has launched a 1.5 million British pound ($2.15 million) ad campaign to tell parents about the dangers of Internet pedophiles. The campaign will center on national newspaper and magazine advertising to encourage parents to "Wise up to the Net." Announcing the campaign this morning, British Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes said that the campaign aims to improve child safety in Internet chat rooms. "Pedophiles are dangerous - not Internet chat rooms," she said. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172620.html Watchdog Group Launches Web Site To Monitor FEC Enforcement The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics announced today that it is launching a new Web site designed to keep pressure on federal regulators to aggressively enforce the nation's campaign finance and lobbying laws. The CRP's new FEC Watch project will monitor the enforcement activities of the Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, and congressional ethics committees. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172638.html New Threats for America A flood of new terrorist threats prompted the White House today to put the nation on alert for a third time since the Sept. 11 attacks. At White House news conference this afternoon, Office of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge alerted the public that U.S. intelligence sources have picked up an "increased volume and level of activity involving threats of terrorist attacks." http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/u...ert011203.html Future Power From an Old Engine Idea In order to develop more fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly power sources of the future, some researchers are turning to a technology of the past. Several companies and developers have begun touting new uses for an engine first developed in 1816 by a Scottish clergyman named Robert Stirling. Although Stirling's engine was initially developed as a safer replacement for the cranky old steam engines of the 19th century, proponents believe that the engine's radically different design will help it become a 21st century wonder. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...dge011130.html More news later on... __________________ This post was sponsored by Netcoco, who wants cookies, cookies, cookies and, you guessed it, more cookies