Ukraine's Domain in Dot-Dispute
Dot-ua is a domain in search of a master. The country code for Ukraine has been around since 1992, soon after the former Soviet republic gained its independence. But the company that registered it is defunct, its founders having fled Ukraine's ailing economy for the West. Stepping into the breach is Ukraine's successor to the KGB, known as the SBU, which said recently that it will take over the top-level domain name. Not so fast, says a San Francisco networks administrator who officially has control of the domain-name registration through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44012,00.html
E-Commerce Fears? Good Reasons
The little lock icon that appears in your Web browser's window is supposed to prove you are engaging in a safe transaction. But it may be nothing more than a visual placebo. The icon is intended to indicate that information is being encrypted as it moves from your computer to the e-commerce site's computer. But complete and uncrackable encryption of outgoing and incoming information may not always take place every time the lock appears on your computer's screen. And safe arrival at the site's servers doesn't guarantee your information is safe forever. Experts say that once the data arrives at the e-commerce site, it's often stored decrypted on the site's servers.
http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,44690,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,44695,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,44740,00.html
Clone Ban a Life-Saving Ban, Too?
Two proposed congressional bills that would ban human cloning have researchers concerned that such legislation would hamper the development of treatments for heart failure, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses. Thomas Okarma, CEO of Geron (GERN), a biotech company in Menlo Park, California, told a congressional panel that to ban all human cloning would not just outlaw the creation of carbon-copy humans. It would also eliminate "therapeutic cloning," which does not result in a new human but clones human embryos for research purposes.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,44737,00.html
Kids Get With the Programming
Net-happy pre-teens have popularized the language of emoticons and acronyms. But at one middle school in California, kids are learning more advanced languages, like Perl, Java, JavaScript, and HTML. Instead of keyboarding and word processing, seventh- and eighth-graders in Nancy Elnor's advanced computer science classes at Longfellow Arts & Technology Magnet Middle School are mastering skills that talent-starved technology companies crave.
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,44533,00.html
True Confessions: Only in Person
An ancient form of anonymous chat -– confession -- doesn't count if done over the Internet, Catholic Church officials say. The Internet is a "marvelous instrument for evangelization and pastoral service," said Monsignor John Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. "But not for confession, which must always take place within the sacramental context of a personal encounter."
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44608,00.html
Spotlight turned on FBI computer systems
The FBI's antiquated computer system will be under the microscope in the coming months. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Wednesday that he has ordered a comprehensive review of the FBI, including its inadequate computer systems. The Justice Department's review comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee held the first of a series of hearings into management problems at the bureau. Lawmakers proposed measures designed to fix the FBI, which was criticized as arrogant and insular. Those measures include the creation of a "blue ribbon" panel to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the bureau and the creation of an FBI inspector general position.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/fcw1.htm
Court Slaps Fees on CD Burners
Hewlett-Packard GmbH must pay intellectual-property fees on CD burners retroactively for three years, a German court ruled on Thursday. HP said it will appeal the ruling. The ongoing legal battle seeks to determine whether buyers of the devices must pay a flat fee to offset losses sustained by authors and artists whose work is duplicated without their permission. HP is fighting the test case on behalf of all hardware makers.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,27374,00.html
High-tech thieves plant money "bugs"
Clever real-world credit card thieves apparently have a new high-tech tool in their arsenal. A credit card terminal maker says it has discovered the existence of small, number-stealing electronic "bugs." The devices can be secretly placed inside store terminals, where they "skim" card numbers with each transaction. The bugs are even smart enough to trick a terminal into "phoning home," delivering batches of stolen numbers to fake credit card manufacturing locations. While acknowledging the threat may be real, Visa International and other terminal makers caution that use of the James Bond-esque device is hardly widespread.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/589575.asp
The end of the code war?
Modern cryptography, such as that employed in a widely used program, Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), relies on the mathematical manipulation of data. To encrypt, or "lock", a message, the program performs a series of mathematical steps on it, using a number more than a hundred digits long. Only that number’s correct mate, or "key", is able to undo these steps and unpack the message. The size of these numbers, and the mathematical formula that links them, make it, in effect, impossible to work out the key by computational brute force. One of today’s keys could not be calculated even if all of today’s computers worked for the lifespan of the universe on the task. Surely that is safety enough? Perhaps not.
http://www.economist.com/science/dis...tory_ID=664508
Space Medicine Gets Smart
Smart medical devices that help astronauts handle emergencies such as electrical burns will become part of the International Space Station perhaps as early as next month. Further down the road, astronauts in trouble may also rely on "virtual clinics" on earth for in-depth medical assistance. These technologies, presented at the June meeting of the American Telemedicine Association in Fort Lauderdale, FL, could also be used to help people on the ground in isolated places with no doctor nearby.
http://www.techreview.com/web/basu/basu062001.asp
Tailor-made laser surgery could give eyesight that is better than "perfect" 20/20
Improved techniques for corrective laser eye surgery could give people much better eyesight than those with so-called normal vision, say researchers in the US. Jim Schwiegerling, an ophthalmologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, says customised surgery could take patients to the theoretical limits of human vision. People would be able to pick out small objects from twice or maybe even four times as far away as those with normal or 20/20 vision. Fewer than five per cent of people are born with such super-vision.
http://www.newscientist.com/dailynew...p?id=ns9999908
Supper time... I'll be right back
