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walktalker · 20-06-01, 03:06 PM

A Marrow-to-Muscle Breakthrough
Medical researchers in Singapore say they have changed human bone marrow cells into heart muscle in a breakthrough that could offer millions of sufferers from heart disease an alternative to transplants. "We have shown that these cells would survive in a heart and actually would make a heart muscle ... out of bone marrow," cardiothoracic surgeon said Dr. Reida El Oakley, a cardiothoracic surgeon. Oakley and two researchers at National University Hospital genetically modified human bone marrow stem cells -- which have the capability to form new tissue -- to take on the special characteristics of a human heart cell.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,44671,00.html

Streaming Toward Dominance
Real Networks and Microsoft have begun travelling the long road to consolidating the streaming marketplace. It promises to be a bloody fight. RealNetorks fired the first shot on Wednesday, saying it will create an open standard for digital rights management companies. The standard, known as xMCL, would effectively nullify any proprietary DRM systems –- such as Microsoft's Windows Media -– by creating a common language that would allow any delivery system to work with any secure media file. Streaming companies are beginning to recognize the importance of interoperability; after all, consumers get frustrated when they click on a stream and it doesn't work in their media player.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,44645,00.html

Prison Urged For Mafiaboy
Mafiaboy, the young computer cracker who made "denial-of-service" a household phrase, should be sentenced to serve at least five months in prison, a social worker said Tuesday at the Canadian teenager's sentencing hearing in Montreal. The 16-year-old, whose real name is being withheld under Canadian law, was arrested in April 2000 and pleaded guilty last January to 58 charges related to the denial-of-service attacks that paralyzed Amazon, eBay, Yahoo and other major websites over a five-day period in February 2000.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44673,00.html

Anti-Virus Board Gets Sick
For the past four weeks, a Windows-based Trojan program dubbed NewsFlood has been swamping some Internet discussion groups with a heavy stream of bogus child pornography advertisements. The attack is the Usenet equivalent of a denial-of-service attack. It doesn't destroy files on the victims' PCs and is not designed to automatically infect other systems. But NewsFlood can ruin the signal-to-noise ratio of an online discussion group with its ads, which invite readers to visit three pornography sites and carries subject lines such as "Girls of 13-16" and "12-15 yo. girls on nudie webcam."
http://www.wired.com/news/infostruct...,44611,00.html

Helpful Hints for Hate Haters
The Anti-Defamation League has launched an aggressive Web-based initiative to help law enforcement target hate crimes on a neighborhood level. "We're using IT capability to communicate as quickly as possible with law enforcement personnel and institutions," said ADL National Director Abraham Foxman. "Law enforcement is prohibited from monitoring organizations unless they commit a crime, but organizations such as ours are permitted to do so, so we become a resource."
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44651,00.html

Oz Takes Censor Laws to People
Proposed state laws expanding police powers to prosecute Internet content providers for obscenity will be subject to wider public consultation, the result of public opposition to the regulations. Critics say the proposed laws would provide authorities greater control over what people can read, write and view on the Internet in South Australia. Supporters say the state laws merely reinforce the principle that uniform standards should apply to all content -- whether it's online, offline, on film or on paper. No time to be Aussie.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44568,00.html

German Teens Tops Among World's Web Surfers
The percentage of German adolescents who spend time surfing the Web at home is lower than several other nations. But, in terms of time spent online, those German teens who do surf are the world champions. That's according to a study issued by NetValue Deutschland, part of the France-based NetValue Internet research group. Among those who surf, German adolescents - defined as children 16 years and younger -averaged 10.9 hours a week online in March, while adolescents in the U.S. averaged 5.9 hours and those in the U.K., 5.8 hours.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167062.html

Linux Gains On Microsoft In Server Software Sales
Linux, the free computer-operating system, is winning at least 10 percent of new computer server software sales, posing an increasing threat to Microsoft. Continually improved by computer programmers worldwide, Linux has emerged as "a very significant competitive force," says Microsoft President Rick Belluzzo. Linux momentum is building: Inconsequential three years ago, the crash-resistant Linux today accounts for 10 percent to 27 percent of server software shipments, surveys show.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167080.html

Artificial Intelligence Isn't Just A Movie
Steven Spielberg's forthcoming A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is only a movie. Or is it? The movie, set in the near future, is about a humanlike robot boy who runs on artificial-intelligence software - a computer program that doesn't just follow instructions, as today's software does, but can think and learn on its own. In some ways, the character is a fantasy. It's no closer to reality than the alien in Spielberg's earlier E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Yet artificial intelligence is very real. It's far from re-creating a human brain, with its power, emotions and flexibility, though that might be possible in as little as 30 years. Today's AI can re-create slices of what humans do, in software that can indeed make decisions.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167082.html

MP3.com's Copyright Wizard Makes It Easy and Affordable to Register Songs And Recordings With U.S. Copyright Office
Procedures for artists to register a copyright in their work can prove both arduous and costly. MP3.com, Inc. today introduced an online service that allows artists and other rights-holders to register the ir songs and recordings with the U.S. Copyright Office quickly and affordably. MP3.com's Copyright Wizard is designed as a "low-touch" alternative for registering works wit h the U.S. Copyright office. While obtaining a copyright certificate can be viewed as an added protection for artists' works, the registration itself has proved at times to be a complicated, confusing and costly process. It simplifies the process by walking users through registration of a copyright and perhaps eliminating the need for professional assistance.
http://pr.mp3.com/pr/356.html

Sell a glowstick, go to prison
Witness the humble glowstick. This neon yellow tube of light, testament to the wonders of the nontoxic chemical reaction, is popular at Britney Spears concerts, Mardi Gras parades and summer street fairs. But because glowsticks are also commonly found at raves, where partiers wave them about during their dance-floor kinetics, they have become a curious casualty of the government's war on drugs. An injunction handed down against a group of New Orleans party promoters last Wednesday charges that glowsticks -- along with pacifiers, Vicks VapoRub and dust masks -- are "drug paraphernalia," and their presence on a dance floor is a sign that illegal drug activity is taking place.
http://www.salon.com/ent/music/featu...ure/index.html

End of an affair?
On June 7, four hackers released a software program that threatens to do for TV shows what Napster did for music and DivX may do for movies. The code, called ExtractStream, allows users of TiVo digital video recorders to move compressed copies of television shows from their beloved TiVo boxes into their computers, and beyond. Like many hackers, the programmers saw their unauthorized exploit as a boon to society. "Even though TiVo, understandably, can't admit it," says one member of the group who asked to remain anonymous, "this code's good for everybody." But ExtractStream's release provoked an unexpectedly vituperative outpouring of criticism from precisely those people who once might have been counted on for hotblooded support.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...ack/index.html

Target to jump-start smart cards
Perhaps no consumer technology has suffered more false starts in the U.S. than smart cards, but the industry may have finally gotten off the ground Tuesday. Retail giant Target announced it would issue smart cards and, more importantly, install smart card readers at its 990 nationwide stores. Consumers armed with the computer-chip enhanced plastic credit cards will have instant access to special discounts and coupons, while Target hopes to gain customer loyalty.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/589587.asp?0dm=C15QT

Sign up here for a trip to Mars
Let's face it, none us has much chance of ever standing on the surface of the Mars. In truth, the Reg hacks have enough trouble making the 30-yard trip from the pub to the office without mishap. A quick trip to the red planet is - frankly - out of the question. Nevertheless, you can participate in NASA's 2003 Mars rover mission. The administration has come up with the ingenious idea of letting people sign up online and having their name recorded on a CD which will accompany the mission.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/19848.html

If you fancy a shag - turn your webcam off

If you fancy getting naked and sweaty with your girlfriend, it might be a good idea to turn your webcam off. Or at least turn it away from the action, or hang your underpants over the lens. Unless of course you're faking the whole accident thing, and you really want to get your girlfriend into Readers Wives.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19812.html

20-06-01, 03:06 PM	#2
walktalker The local newspaper man Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Montreal Posts: 2,036	Ha ! You've just begun reading muhhahaha A Marrow-to-Muscle Breakthrough Medical researchers in Singapore say they have changed human bone marrow cells into heart muscle in a breakthrough that could offer millions of sufferers from heart disease an alternative to transplants. "We have shown that these cells would survive in a heart and actually would make a heart muscle ... out of bone marrow," cardiothoracic surgeon said Dr. Reida El Oakley, a cardiothoracic surgeon. Oakley and two researchers at National University Hospital genetically modified human bone marrow stem cells -- which have the capability to form new tissue -- to take on the special characteristics of a human heart cell. http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,44671,00.html Streaming Toward Dominance Real Networks and Microsoft have begun travelling the long road to consolidating the streaming marketplace. It promises to be a bloody fight. RealNetorks fired the first shot on Wednesday, saying it will create an open standard for digital rights management companies. The standard, known as xMCL, would effectively nullify any proprietary DRM systems –- such as Microsoft's Windows Media -– by creating a common language that would allow any delivery system to work with any secure media file. Streaming companies are beginning to recognize the importance of interoperability; after all, consumers get frustrated when they click on a stream and it doesn't work in their media player. http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,44645,00.html Prison Urged For Mafiaboy Mafiaboy, the young computer cracker who made "denial-of-service" a household phrase, should be sentenced to serve at least five months in prison, a social worker said Tuesday at the Canadian teenager's sentencing hearing in Montreal. The 16-year-old, whose real name is being withheld under Canadian law, was arrested in April 2000 and pleaded guilty last January to 58 charges related to the denial-of-service attacks that paralyzed Amazon, eBay, Yahoo and other major websites over a five-day period in February 2000. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44673,00.html Anti-Virus Board Gets Sick For the past four weeks, a Windows-based Trojan program dubbed NewsFlood has been swamping some Internet discussion groups with a heavy stream of bogus child pornography advertisements. The attack is the Usenet equivalent of a denial-of-service attack. It doesn't destroy files on the victims' PCs and is not designed to automatically infect other systems. But NewsFlood can ruin the signal-to-noise ratio of an online discussion group with its ads, which invite readers to visit three pornography sites and carries subject lines such as "Girls of 13-16" and "12-15 yo. girls on nudie webcam." http://www.wired.com/news/infostruct...,44611,00.html Helpful Hints for Hate Haters The Anti-Defamation League has launched an aggressive Web-based initiative to help law enforcement target hate crimes on a neighborhood level. "We're using IT capability to communicate as quickly as possible with law enforcement personnel and institutions," said ADL National Director Abraham Foxman. "Law enforcement is prohibited from monitoring organizations unless they commit a crime, but organizations such as ours are permitted to do so, so we become a resource." http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44651,00.html Oz Takes Censor Laws to People Proposed state laws expanding police powers to prosecute Internet content providers for obscenity will be subject to wider public consultation, the result of public opposition to the regulations. Critics say the proposed laws would provide authorities greater control over what people can read, write and view on the Internet in South Australia. Supporters say the state laws merely reinforce the principle that uniform standards should apply to all content -- whether it's online, offline, on film or on paper. No time to be Aussie. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44568,00.html German Teens Tops Among World's Web Surfers The percentage of German adolescents who spend time surfing the Web at home is lower than several other nations. But, in terms of time spent online, those German teens who do surf are the world champions. That's according to a study issued by NetValue Deutschland, part of the France-based NetValue Internet research group. Among those who surf, German adolescents - defined as children 16 years and younger -averaged 10.9 hours a week online in March, while adolescents in the U.S. averaged 5.9 hours and those in the U.K., 5.8 hours. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167062.html Linux Gains On Microsoft In Server Software Sales Linux, the free computer-operating system, is winning at least 10 percent of new computer server software sales, posing an increasing threat to Microsoft. Continually improved by computer programmers worldwide, Linux has emerged as "a very significant competitive force," says Microsoft President Rick Belluzzo. Linux momentum is building: Inconsequential three years ago, the crash-resistant Linux today accounts for 10 percent to 27 percent of server software shipments, surveys show. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167080.html Artificial Intelligence Isn't Just A Movie Steven Spielberg's forthcoming A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is only a movie. Or is it? The movie, set in the near future, is about a humanlike robot boy who runs on artificial-intelligence software - a computer program that doesn't just follow instructions, as today's software does, but can think and learn on its own. In some ways, the character is a fantasy. It's no closer to reality than the alien in Spielberg's earlier E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Yet artificial intelligence is very real. It's far from re-creating a human brain, with its power, emotions and flexibility, though that might be possible in as little as 30 years. Today's AI can re-create slices of what humans do, in software that can indeed make decisions. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167082.html MP3.com's Copyright Wizard Makes It Easy and Affordable to Register Songs And Recordings With U.S. Copyright Office Procedures for artists to register a copyright in their work can prove both arduous and costly. MP3.com, Inc. today introduced an online service that allows artists and other rights-holders to register the ir songs and recordings with the U.S. Copyright Office quickly and affordably. MP3.com's Copyright Wizard is designed as a "low-touch" alternative for registering works wit h the U.S. Copyright office. While obtaining a copyright certificate can be viewed as an added protection for artists' works, the registration itself has proved at times to be a complicated, confusing and costly process. It simplifies the process by walking users through registration of a copyright and perhaps eliminating the need for professional assistance. http://pr.mp3.com/pr/356.html Sell a glowstick, go to prison Witness the humble glowstick. This neon yellow tube of light, testament to the wonders of the nontoxic chemical reaction, is popular at Britney Spears concerts, Mardi Gras parades and summer street fairs. But because glowsticks are also commonly found at raves, where partiers wave them about during their dance-floor kinetics, they have become a curious casualty of the government's war on drugs. An injunction handed down against a group of New Orleans party promoters last Wednesday charges that glowsticks -- along with pacifiers, Vicks VapoRub and dust masks -- are "drug paraphernalia," and their presence on a dance floor is a sign that illegal drug activity is taking place. http://www.salon.com/ent/music/featu...ure/index.html End of an affair? On June 7, four hackers released a software program that threatens to do for TV shows what Napster did for music and DivX may do for movies. The code, called ExtractStream, allows users of TiVo digital video recorders to move compressed copies of television shows from their beloved TiVo boxes into their computers, and beyond. Like many hackers, the programmers saw their unauthorized exploit as a boon to society. "Even though TiVo, understandably, can't admit it," says one member of the group who asked to remain anonymous, "this code's good for everybody." But ExtractStream's release provoked an unexpectedly vituperative outpouring of criticism from precisely those people who once might have been counted on for hotblooded support. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...ack/index.html Target to jump-start smart cards Perhaps no consumer technology has suffered more false starts in the U.S. than smart cards, but the industry may have finally gotten off the ground Tuesday. Retail giant Target announced it would issue smart cards and, more importantly, install smart card readers at its 990 nationwide stores. Consumers armed with the computer-chip enhanced plastic credit cards will have instant access to special discounts and coupons, while Target hopes to gain customer loyalty. http://www.msnbc.com/news/589587.asp?0dm=C15QT Sign up here for a trip to Mars Let's face it, none us has much chance of ever standing on the surface of the Mars. In truth, the Reg hacks have enough trouble making the 30-yard trip from the pub to the office without mishap. A quick trip to the red planet is - frankly - out of the question. Nevertheless, you can participate in NASA's 2003 Mars rover mission. The administration has come up with the ingenious idea of letting people sign up online and having their name recorded on a CD which will accompany the mission. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/19848.html If you fancy a shag - turn your webcam off If you fancy getting naked and sweaty with your girlfriend, it might be a good idea to turn your webcam off. Or at least turn it away from the action, or hang your underpants over the lens. Unless of course you're faking the whole accident thing, and you really want to get your girlfriend into Readers Wives. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19812.html