License PC Users? It's a Thought
In a connected world, we suffer from the consequences of other people's computer ignorance. This summer, inboxes have been filled to overflowing with SirCam-infected e-mails, a hassle even if you don't click on the attachments. And well-protected networks continue to be whacked by constant scans from Code Red-infested computers. Most security experts lay the blame for the widespread virus and worm attacks on sloppy hardware and software design, and say that systems are designed with far too many unneeded fancy features intended to woo the reluctant buyer but skimp on basic "boring" security.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46096,00.html
Planetary Pile-Up Created Moon
The moon was created during a spectacular smash between the Earth and another planet, a new computer simulation suggests. The planetary pile-up may also account for the fact that Earth days are 24 hours long. Scientists at the Southwest Research Institute and the University of California at Santa Cruz have developed a new computer simulation that lends credence to the "giant impact" theory of the moon's birth.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,46114,00.html
New Find: Similar Solar System 
Astronomers have found the first solar system outside our own where multiple planets travel round the same star in circular orbits. "It's heartwarming to find a planetary system that finally reminds us of our solar system," said astronomy professor Geoffrey Marcy, a member of the University of California at Berkeley team that made the discovery. The astronomers announced the discovery of the second planet orbiting the star 47 Ursae Majoris on Wednesday. Most of the roughly 70 planets found so far outside our solar system travel in tight, erratic orbits around their stars.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,46103,00.html
Online Court Cases Move Forward
People could log onto their home computers instead of going to the federal courthouse to get information on many cases under a plan to put records on the Internet. A panel of judges stopped short of directing that all cases be available online, however, taking a tentative step into the Internet age with civil cases first. Records would be edited to remove personal information that could be used by cyber criminals. A committee of 14 judges said records of criminal cases should not be put on the Internet for now because "information could then be very easily used to intimidate, harass and possibly harm victims, defendants and their families." They said the policy should be reviewed within two years.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46104,00.html
ASCI White: It's Here, It's Now
The most powerful computer in the world, programmed to simulate the explosion of a nuclear bomb, was unveiled Wednesday at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. ASCI White, a $110 million computer squeezed into enough refrigerator-sized units to fill a couple of basketball courts, will be used to simulate nuclear tests that the government has promised not to carry out for real. The beast -- built by IBM (IBM) from off-the-shelf processors using a souped-up version of its commercial operating system, AIX -- weighs as much as 17 full-size elephants. It requires as much cooling as 765 homes, and can do in a second what a calculator would take 10 million years to do, IBM claims.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,46105,00.html
Synthespians No 'Final' Fantasy
In an upcoming Jet Li film, the martial arts master battles a copy of himself from another dimension -- and takes filmmaking a step closer to virtual actors. Digital effects expert Jeff Kleiser creates the illusion of dueling doubles by pasting Li's head on the stuntman who's actually fighting him. The seamless results illustrate how newly developed computer tools are allowing filmmakers to add so-called synthespians into indistinguishable parts of the action.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,46102,00.html
US firm offers stars DNA copyright
A privately-held corporation in the United States is trying to persuade famous individuals to copyright their DNA. The DNA Copyright Institute, San Franscisco, wants stars to use its services to strengthen their legal position should anyone decide to clone them against their will. Most scientists disapprove of the idea of trying to clone human beings, but DNACI's founder, Andre Crump, told the BBC that he believed it would not be difficult to find someone to carry out the cloning procedure. "Cloning is going to be as easy as in vitro fertilisation," he told the BBC's Today programme.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1492859.stm
Privacy experts slam snooping code of practice
Cyber-liberty experts are frustrated that the Home Office consultation paper offers no guidelines on the legitimate interception of communications. Privacy experts have slammed the Home Office's draft Code of Practice for accessing communications data as a nebulous attempt to justify the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). The draft Code of Practice addresses the most controversial part of RIPA, which is expected to come into force later this year - it regulates monitoring of electronic communications such as email messages. At the centre of the controversy is the power that RIPA gives to law enforcement officers to monitor email communications.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t26...kpt=zdnn_nbs_h
McAfee's Monopoly on Antivirus Software Could Prove Deadly
Complain all you want; dealing with viruses has become a part of everyday computing life. Like the Love Bug and Melissa viruses before them, SirCam and at least three known variants of Code Red are out there wreaking havoc right now -- and they're just the most publicized ones. New viruses and Internet worms seem to appear almost daily. Easy-to-use tool kits let even the least talented of hackers create new ones in minutes, adding to what seems like a never-ending list. Though it's probably wishful thinking to hope that even a single one of us will escape virus infection at one point or another, at least there's some comfort. Antivirus software is available to help us clean up the mess, and these programs are dutifully kept updated with fixes for all the latest bugs.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../16/mcafee.DTL
More Moons Around Earth? It’s Not So Loony
Earth has a second moon, of sorts, and could have many others, according to three astronomers who did calculations to describe orbital motions at gravitational balance points in space that temporarily pull asteroids into bizarre orbits near our planet. The 3-mile-wide (5-km) satellite, which takes 770 years to complete a horseshoe-shaped orbit around Earth, is called Cruithne and will remain in a suspended state around Earth for at least 5,000 years. Cruithne, discovered in 1986, and then found in 1997 to have a highly eccentric orbit, cannot be seen by the naked eye, but scientists working at Queen Mary and Westfield College in London were intrigued enough with its peregrinations to come up with mathematical models to describe its path. That led them to theorize that the model could explain the movement of other objects captured at the gravitational balance points that exist between all planets and the sun.
http://space.com/scienceastronomy/so...on_991029.html
Welcome to the Always-On World
These days our culture is trying to digest several new technologies at the same time. The controversy over cell-phone etiquette is part of this process, and it portends much greater controversies to come. How can we think about it? You are sitting in the theater and your cell phone rings. The theater performance has been disrupted, but the caller is innocent. Instead, everyone is mad at you: you could have turned your phone off or switched it to vibrate instead of ringing. It's your fault. But something deeper is going on. Think about it: anyone in the world can reach into the theater and cause a machine to emit a loud noise. In the old days, the theater was a more controlled space than that. The theater, in its very architecture, reflects a set of social relationships: between the players and the audience, between those who have been admitted into the seating areas and those who haven't, between the people with the expensive tickets and the people with the cheap tickets, between the bartenders and the customers, and so on. Everyone plays his or her part in this institutional drama, and so the play can get performed.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY...ce/speaka.html