1. No category

The Newsletter for Sonoma County’s Mac and Windows Users
March 2006 Vol.1 No 3
How to Buy and Sell
Saturday, March 11
Sonoma Public Library
10:00 am - 11:30 am
Guest Speaker:
Kay Nagel
See Pg. 5
Table of Contents
E-Mail Hijacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
MemoryMinor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Inkjet Paper Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Charging for Internet? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
About March Topic - e-Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
O'Reilly Book Discount Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2
3
3
4
5
5
Peachpit Book Discount Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Call For Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Cleaning Poem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
What's News? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Computer Humor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Computer Cartoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Sonoma Valley
Computer Group
OFFICERS FOR 2006
President
Beth Pickering
[email protected]
Vice President
Will Smith
[email protected]
Secretary
Eleanor Laubly
[email protected]
Treasurer
Joan Fabian
[email protected]
Newsletter
Kathy Aanestad
[email protected]
Members-at-Large
George Pick
[email protected]
Jeannette Woods
[email protected]
Elizabeth Palmer
[email protected]
Jackie Smith
[email protected]
Silvia Chloe
[email protected]
SVCG Evangelist
Veda Lewis
[email protected]
Board Meetings
Usually following General Meeting. Open
to all members. Call 935-6690 for further
information.
Memberships
S.V.C.G. Annual Membership: $20.
S.V.C.G. Family membership: $30 (resid-
ing at same address). Membership renewals are
due and payable at the beginning of each year.
General Meetings
S.V.C.G. meets second Saturday of each
month at Sonoma Public Library, 755 West
Napa Street; hours: 10AM to 11:30AM
unless otherwise notified. Meetings free;
guests welcome.
About this publication
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter is published
monthly by Sonoma Valley Computer Group. Desktop
publishing services donated by: Kathy Aanestad. Call:
(707) 935-6690, email [email protected]. © 2006,
SVCG. All rights reserved. Sponsored by our local ISP,
DataProfessionals, on 19480-8th St. East.
Mailing Address:
Sonoma Valley Computer Group
PO Box 649
El Verano, CA 95433
Donating
Used
Computer
Equipment
E-MAIL
HIJACKING
http://cbs5.com/investigates
The URL listed is for the Computer
Recycling Center. All of the info needed (and then some) is listed on the site.
http://www.crc.org/
Thanks to Wayne Till for that tip.
SVCG User
Group
Benefits and
Discounts
As a benefit to being a member of the
Sonoma Valley Computer Group, you
get 20%-30% off books from various
publishers.
In addition, SVCG belongs to the Apple
User Group program whereby members can purchase Apple products at a
savings. Contact Kathy Aanestad for
user ID and password in order to access
their online site.
CBS 5 Investigates: Email Hijacking
Your Email inbox probably has information you wouldn’t want anyone to
have: personal, family, and financial
details. CBS 5 Investigates’ Anna
Werner reports on how easy is it for
someone to get access to your email
account and even get your passwords.
[Ed. - I've checked out this URL and
it is quite informative. Click on the
link above to see a small video at
CBS's website on E-Mail Hijacking.]
FONT TYPE
EXAMPLES
FONT: Helvetica
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890-=
!@#$%^&*()_+
We need members to help with finding
contacts for PC user group offers so
that they can be included in the newsletter postings.
FONT: Party LET
Additionally, our user group gets discounts from the following book companies:
FONT: Bodoni Ornaments
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890-=
!@#$%^&*()_+
O’Reilly
New Riders Books
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890-=
!@#$%^&*()_+
PeachPit
For more info, send email to Kathy:
[email protected]
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
2
http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html
MemoryMiner
INKJET PAPER
RESOURCES
http://memoryminer.com
MemoryMiner is a brand new application that represents the
first step towards a long term goal: the creation of the world’s
most extensive network of first-person accounts of modern society and culture. Like all big ideas, it starts with a simple premise
and a mass appeal for participation. MemoryMiner is an application used to organize and share digital media using a simple, yet
powerful metaphor, namely “People, Places and Time.”
NORTH
BAY
PHOTOGRAPHERS
(707) 546-6610
742 Wilson St
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
They have a broad selection of paper for fine art and photography printing. The staff is knowledgeable and friendly.
They even gave me a couple of samples of paper one time.
At its core, are a simple set of tools for treating photos (particularly rare, “pre-digital” photos) as individual frames in a type of
endless story board. The story elements are linked to each other
by way of annotation layers identifying the people, places, dates
and events captured in each frame. As links are made, it becomes
easy and tremendously interesting to explore the threads which
link people’s lives across time, place and shared experience.
WOOT.COM
At 10:00 PM PST each night Woot posts one item for sale.
The price is always very low. They have had everything from
giant plasma TVs to USB Bluetooth connectors. Occasionally
they have paper--cheap! I got a box with six packages of 30
each HP high quality note cards with envelopes for less than
$20. Really good deals sell out quick so it’s worth checking
at 10:00ish to see what they have.
Over time, a set of network services will link individual
MemoryMiner libraries, using the descriptive metadata to help
people find these digital story elements securely and efficiently.
IT SUPPLIES
Another great source for paper and inks and printers etc. is IT SUPPLIES 800 238-6050 great prices fast shipping that
is free and no tax to pay. Tell Greg you learned about him
from Susan and Neil and he will go out of his way to please
you and probably get you some goodies along the way. No
one can beat costco for glossy inexpensive paper but for the
better grades IT SUPPLY is fabulous and their ink prices will
save you a lot over the period of a year for the individual inks
for the 2200 epson and printers like that.
SVCG
( Plugged into Technology
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
SUPPLY, 3
9
http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html
CHARGING FOR
INTERNET?
LIST OF ALL KINDS OF
THINGS
There was this related news 3.2.2006 New York Times:
http://www.listible.com/
“Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, will introduce
new legislation that would prohibit Internet network operators
from charging companies for faster delivery of their content to
consumers or favoring some content providers over others.
Lists of lists, lists for movies, game sites, online video sharing
sites, free games, Google services, weather sites, social network
sites, audiobook resources, Bible verses, best of this and that...
etc.
The bill is meant to ease growing fears that open Internet
access may be blocked or compromised by the Bell phone
carriers and cable operators, which may create tiers of service
for delivering content to consumers, much the way the post
office charges more for overnight mail delivery than for regular delivery.
Want to learn something about podcasting? There are favorite
podcast sites, how-to sites, and more.
Consumer groups and Internet companies like Google and
Amazon contend that any move by the network operators to
levy fees for premium delivery service would harm Web sites
that are unwilling to pay for faster delivery.
The Wyden legislation, called the Internet Non-Discrimination
Act of 2006, aims to prohibit network operators from assessing charges that give some content providers better access than
others or blocking its subscribers from accessing content....”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/technology/02online.
html
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Membership Application/Renewal Form
New Applicant
Renewal (expiration date on label)
c Use information below
c Use the name and address label on Page 12
Name:______________________________________
Address:_ ___________________________________
___________________________________________
Home Phone:_________________________________
Work Phone:_________________________________
E-mail Address:_______________________________
Platform:
c Mac
cPC
cWinNT
Operating System:
c OS 8x cWin3
cUnix
c OS 9x cWin95 cLinux
c OS X cWin98 c WinME
Computer Make/Model:___________________________ .
How did you hear about SVCG?
Send c $20 (individual) c $30 (family) check to:
Sonoma Valley Computer Group
POB 649
El Verano, CA 95433
c I give permission to use this info in the club roster which
is for members only
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
cclass c club member c newspaper c newsletter
User Level:
4
c Novice
c Advanced
c Intermediate
c Expert
http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html
LEARN HOW TO SELL
AND BUY ON EBAY
O'REILLY BOOKS
DISCOUNT INFO
The Sonoma Valley Computer Group will meet Saturday,
March 11, 2006, 10:00 am to 11:30am., at the Sonoma Public
Library, 755 West Napa, Sonoma, California.
30% discount on
O’Reilly, No Starch,
Paraglyph,
PC
Publishing, Pragmatic Bookshelf, SitePoint, and Syngress
books. Just use code DSUG when ordering online or by phone
800-998-9938.
<http://www.oreilly.com/>
Do you have stuff that you no longer need which is just taking up
space and collecting dust in your home? Have you been looking
unsuccessfully in stores for an item? You could dispose of your
old stuff and earn a surprising amount of money, or find that item
and buy it at a fair price, by using eBay. EBay, which is now
celebrating its tenth anniversary, is the world’s largest online
community of buyers and sellers, with more than 157 million
registered users, of whom 75 million are in the United States.
At this meeting Kay Nagel, a highly experienced eBay user, will
present a tutorial on selling and buying on eBay. She will give
an overview of how eBay works and show you how to register as
a seller and as a buyer, complete seller forms, and create suitable
titles for sale items. She will discuss fees and pricing strategies and outline how to create attention-attracting merchandise
descriptions, take photographs that will attract buyers and inspire
bids, upload photographs to your seller’s listing, and package and
ship sold items. Kay will also discuss bidding strategies, finding
the selling prices of similar previously sold items, and payment
options, including use of PayPal, eBay’s online payment service.
Using Kay’s tips, techniques, and strategies, selling and buying
on eBay can be fun, fast, and profitable.
Kay, who resides in Napa, has been buying and selling items on
eBay for many years. She has been especially active as a seller
during the past year. Even as a casual seller, she has often grossed
more than two thousand dollars per month auctioning items on
eBay.
For more information call:
Kathy Aanestad at 935-6690 or Jeanette Woods at 996-4563.
Sonoma Valley Computer Group is open to Mac and PC computer
users of all experience levels. The group attempts to provide an
opportunity for all valley residents to pursue an interest in computers and technology, learn about current issues in the field, and
meet others with similar interests. Annual dues are $20, which
includes a monthly newsletter. Guests are always welcome. Come
to this meeting!
***Free ground shipping is available for online orders of at
least $29.95 that go to a single address. This offer applies to
US delivery addresses in the fifty states and Puerto Rico. For
more details, go to: <http://www.oreilly.com/news/freeshipping_0703.html>
***A Secret Tip for Taking Great Digital Shots
Want to impress friends and family with professional-looking photos? Professional photographer and best-selling author
Derrick Story provides his favorite tip--using a flash setting-for taking great shots for better skin tone, reduced texture in the
face, and adding a twinkle to the eyes.
<http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2006/02/01/secrettip-for-taking-great-digital-shots.html>
***Quicken 2006 Missing Manual: Setting Up Your Quicken
Environment After you install Quicken, you’re only a few steps
away from experiencing the joys of electronic personal finance.
Chapter 1 of “Quicken 2006 for Starters: The Missing Manual”
gets you out of the gate running, guiding you through launch,
set up and the intricate preferences. If you like this chapter, read
the whole book (and up to nine others) on Safari with a free trial
subscription. <http://safari.oreilly.com/?XmlId=0596101279/
quickenfstmm-CHP-1>
***Early Access to Cutting-Edge Technology
O’Reilly’s Safari Books Online has just announced a new service called Rough Cuts that gives you early access to content on
cutting-edge technologies months before it’s published. Rough
Cuts allows you to purchase work-in-progress manuscripts of
selected titles. For more information, go to:
<http://www.oreilly.com/roughcuts/>
New Releases
---------------------------------------------------------------***Adobe InDesign CS2 One-on-One
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596100973
This unique, hands-on book comes with two hours of video
instruction (hosted by Deke McClelland himself) on DVD to
get you working with InDesign right away, building relevant,
real-world projects while mastering fundamental and advanced
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
5
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concepts, theory, best practices, and techniques for making the
most of InDesign--to make the most of your page designs.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/adobeindesign2/>
***Analyzing Business Data with Excel
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596100736
Learn how to apply Excel’s advanced data analysis features to
solve real-world business problems. This hands-on reference
targets specific business situations, then demonstrates how to
create spreadsheets for these problem areas. Topics include statistics, pivot tables, workload forecasting, modeling, queuing,
data importing, and more. Perfect for professional Excel users
working in an office environment. <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/analyzingbdwe/>
***Building Extreme PCs
The Complete Guide to Modding and Custom PCs
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596101368
“Building Extreme PCs” is the ultimate guide to the world of
PC modification and customization. Both a showcase and a DIY
handbook, it goes in-depth into system building, overclocking,
cooling, and modification, reveals the secrets of optimization and
benchmarking, then moves on to cover some of the most exciting and inspirational custom built systems around. From silent
systems to multi-processor monsters, from gaming powerhouses
to neon-lit speed machines, this book has it all, complete with
guidance from the people who made them.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/buildpcs/>
***Degunking Your Home
Publisher: Paraglyph Press
January 2006
ISBN: 1933097116
Do you find yourself in one or more of these situations--you’re
constantly losing your car keys, the “junk” room has threatened
to take over your house, or you can’t remember the last time you
could quickly find something in the garage? Then you need to get
organized quickly and degunk! Author Joli Ballew will show you
how simple it is to declutter, organize, make your home really
work for you, and keep it looking great with her easy and timesaving 12-step program. Even if you have a busy and hectic life,
you can keep your home organized and clean.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1933097116/>
***DJ Handbook, Second Edition
Publisher: PC Publishing
ISBN: 1870775996
Written by a working DJ who’s been there and done that, “The
DJ Handbook” is an essential read for every DJ. You’ll find
advice on choosing equipment (microphones, decks, cartridges,
headphones, speakers, and the rest), as well as setting it all up
and getting the best sound out of it--whatever the venue. Plus
hands-on advice on transport, setting up your sound system at the
gig, dealing with punters, looking after safety, and troubleshoot-
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
ing your equipment.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1870775996/>
***DV Filmmaking: From Start to Finish
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596008481
Written in an engaging, accessible style, “DV Filmmaking”
provides a solid foundation of tremendous value to a beginner, while addressing the fine points of filmmaking with a
level of sophistication, detail, and insight that even the most
worldly director or educator can appreciate. The author draws
upon his years of experience teaching at the college and
graduate level, his extensive professional background as a
media producer, and his unmistakable love of cinema to create a text that’s not only easy to learn from, but also fun to
read. <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dvfilmmaking/>
***Fixing Access Annoyances
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 059600852X
Access is one of the easier and more flexible database management solutions for organizing data. You could grab other
books for help, but do they solve problems from page one?
Meet a book of a different stripe where newcomers start off
right and learn valuable methods for building databases while
seasoned pros gain efficiency. “Fixing Access Annoyances”
saves time and bouts of hair pulling.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/accessannoy/>
***Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596100043
Microsoft PowerPoint is the most popular presentation software on the planet. Since an estimated 30 million PowerPoint
presentations are made every day, no matter how frustrating it
gets, you’re not about to chuck the program in the recycle bin.
If you’re vexed and perplexed by PowerPoint, this new guide
presents a variety of all-too-familiar, real-world annoyances
and smart solutions for every one of them.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/>
***Flickr Hacks
ISBN: 0596102453
“Flickr Hacks” expands the fun and the utility of Flickr,
Yahoo!’s popular digital photo-sharing service, by customizing this cutting-edge technology to store, sort, and share
photos. The book adopts the game-like appeal of the Flickr
site, in individual projects ranging from easy to advanced.
Quick hacks show you how to post photos directly to
blogs and upload photos from a cellphone. Advanced hacks
teach you to
use the Flickr API, make photo puzzles and collages, and
geocode photos
to plot on a map.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/flickrhks/>
6
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***How to Cheat at Configuring ISA Server 2004
ISBN: 1597490571
If deploying and managing ISA Server 2004 is just one of a
hundred responsibilities you have as a System Administrator,
“How to Cheat at Configuring ISA Server 2004” is the perfect
book for you. Written by Microsoft MVP Dr. Tom Shinder, this
is a concise, accurate, enterprise tested method for the successful
deployment of an ISA Server.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1597490571/>
***Learning C# 2005, Second Edition
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596102097
Completely revised to cover C# 2.0 and Visual Basic 2005, this
introductory guide offers a thorough introduction to Microsoft’s
premier .NET language. Discover how to develop various kinds
of web services and applications--including those that work with
databases. More than 200 questions and programming exercises
make mastering the essentials of the C# language easy and fun.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learncsharp2/>
***Logic Pro Tips and Tricks
Publisher: PC Publishing
ISBN: 1870775333
The tips and tricks in this book are laid out in an easy to use format,
and will allow you to get the best from the program when recording, editing, mixing, and mastering. There are sections on setting
up, optimizing, and organizing your workflow. You’ll discover
easy ways to perform many complex tasks, and there’s a plethora
of other tips and pointers that reveal many of Logic’s ‘hidden’
functions. <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1870775333/>
***MAKE: Technology on Your Time Volume 05
ISBN: 0596523688
Every issue of MAKE is packed with projects to help you make
the most of all the technology in your life. Everything from home
entertainment systems, to laptops, to a host of PDAs is fair game.
If there’s a way to hack it, tweak it, bend it, or remix it, you will
find out about it here.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/makemag06v1/>
***Mind Performance Hacks
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0-596-10153-8
“Mind Performance Hacks” provides real-life tips and tools for
overclocking your brain and becoming a better thinker. In the
increasingly frenetic pace of today’s information economy,
managing your life requires hacking your brain. With this book,
you’ll cut through the clutter and tune up your brain intentionally,
safely, and productively.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/>
***Photoshop Fine Art Effects Cookbook
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596100620
“Photoshop Fine Art Effects Cookbook” tells you all you need
to know to turn your digital photographs into images that mimic
the styles of great visual artists. From advice on how to choose
appropriate subject matter to 62 step-by-step recipes that show
you how to create an “original” van Gogh, Vermeer, Edward
Weston, or Andy Warhol (among others), this book is an authentic
guide to simulating the work of great artists-and a whole lot of
fun. <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/fineartfx/>
***Looking Good in Print, Sixth Edition
Publisher: Paraglyph Press
ISBN: 193309706X
“Looking Good in Print” is celebrating fifteen years in print with
the newest edition “Looking Good in Print, Sixth Edition.” This
book has grown over the years to become the “Bible” for desktop
publishers and it is widely used as the leading text for courses on
desktop publishing. This new edition is updated and expanded
to reflect the growing needs of desktop publishers who need to
be proficient at creating documents for both print and electronic
publication and distribution.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/193309706X/>
***Programming SQL Server 2005
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596004796
Ideal for IT professionals of all stripes, this authoritative guide
introduces all facets of SQL Server 2005, Microsoft’s next-generation data management and analysis solution. The book explains
all of its new features, and shows you how they can help conquer
a variety of data challenges. Learn how to reduce the complexity
of building, deploying and managing database applications, and
much more. <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/progsqlsvr/>
***The Mac Tiger Server Little Black Book
Publisher: Paraglyph Press
ISBN: 1933097140
This unique black book guides you through all the aspects of the
new Mac Tiger Server including understanding the Apple network, managing network access, and network protocols such as
TCP/IP AppleTalk, and the OSI model. It’s jam-packed with hundreds of “how-to” tips to ensure that servers are set up correctly
and they operate as efficiently as possible.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1933097140/>
***Repairing and Upgrading Your PC
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 059600866X
Repairing and Upgrading Your PC delivers start-to-finish instructions, simple enough for even the most inexperienced PC
owner, for troubleshooting, repairing, and upgrading your computer. Written by hardware experts Robert Bruce Thompson and
Barbara Fritchman Thompson, this book covers it all: how to
troubleshoot a troublesome PC, how to identify which components make sense for an upgrade, and how to tear it all down and
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
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put it back together.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/repairpc/>
***Security Log Management
Publisher: Syngress
ISBN: 1597490423
As a system administrator or security professional, you probably
find yourself inundated each day with a deluge of log files from
seemingly countless devices, servers, and applications on your
network ranging from Windows Server to Snort to your PIX
firewall and everything in between. This unique book will show
you how to use a combination of open source software such as
Tcpdstats, and Snort perfmonitor to create succinct, meaningful
reports that give you the big picture of your network’s overall
health and well being. So, if you need to analyze and prioritize
everything from how much of your bandwidth is devoted to
browsing ESPN.com, to the most targeted machines in your IDS
logs, this is the book for you.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1597490423/>
***VB 2005 Little Black Book
Publisher: Paraglyph Press
ISBN: 1933097086
“Visual Basic 2005 Programming Little Black Book” is one of
the first comprehensive books that cover the new version of
Visual Basic and the development features of Microsoft’s .NET
platform in depth. The book explains the major changes to VB
and provides numerous tips and practical solutions for developing applications. <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1933097086/>
***Visual Basic 2005 in a Nutshell, Third Edition
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 059610152X
Newly updated, this classic detailed reference to the Visual Basic
programming language had been reorganized to cover all the
ins and outs of Visual Basic 2005, including new features like
Generics, My Namespace, and operators. An alphabetical reference to Visual Basic 2005 statements, procedures, functions, and
objects makes sure you follow along. Ideal for developers, programmers, and anyone learning VB as a first language.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/vb2005ian3/>
***Web Design in a Nutshell, Third Edition
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596009879
Our popular reference, “Web Design in a Nutshell,” has been
completely rewritten and expanded to reflect the state of the art in
web standards. In addition to being an authoritative reference for
(X)HTML and Cascading Style Sheets, this book also provides
an overview of the unique requirements of designing for the Web
and gets to the nitty-gritty of JavaScript and DOM Scripting, web
graphics optimization, and multimedia production. It is an indispensable tool for web designers and developers of all levels.
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wdnut3/>
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
***Web Site Cookbook
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596101090
This handy guide provides a wide range of solutions to real-life
problems that come up regularly when creating and growing a
web site. With recipes that teach both routine and advanced setup
tasks, the book includes clear and professional instruction on a
host of topics. Learn page design, visitor tracking, site promotion,
and much more.<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/websiteckbk/>
***Wicked Cool Perl Scripts
Publisher: No Starch Press
ISBN: 1593270623
Most Perl programmers have been frustrated at one time or
another because the system just wouldn’t do what they wanted
it to do. There was that one simple and obvious utility that was
missing that would make life so much easier. “Wicked Cool Perl
Scripts” is about writing those utilities quickly and easily. A collection of handy utilities that solves difficult problems, “Wicked
Cool Perl Scripts” is a great resource for the savvy Perl programmer. <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270623/>
--------------------Mac
--------------------***What’s New in iWork ‘06?
iWork’s tandem offering of Pages and Keynote provides a useful collection of tools for presentations, word processing, and
layout. But how much has changed since last year’s debut?
Giles Turnbull walks you through Pages 2 and Keynote 3 to help
decide if this upgrade is for you. <http://www.macdevcenter.
com/pub/a/mac/2006/02/22/iwork.html>
***Digitizing VHS Tapes with EyeTV
By digitizing your old VHS tapes, you can move them from
taking up precious shelf space to more readily available disk
space. In this article, Joe McMahon shows you a hack that lets
you archive full-quality digital recordings from EyeTV to offline
media, but still play them back easily in EyeTV. <http://www.
macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2006/02/14/eyetv.html>
--------------------Windows/.NET
--------------------***Inside Look: Internet Explorer 7, Beta 2
The long-awaited Beta 2 of IE 7 is finally here. What’s new,
good, and better? Wei-Meng Lee gives you a guided tour and
an inside look. <http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2006/02/21/inside-look-internet-explorer-7-beta-2.html>
***Creating an Application from Scratch, Part 3
Jesse Liberty is creating an application from scratch in ASP.NET
2.0 while you watch over his shoulder. In part 3, he builds the
engine and implements it. <http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/
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windows/2006/02/14/creating-an-application-from-scratch-part3.html>
--------------------Web
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PEACHPIT BOOKS
DISCOUNT
USER GROUP COUPON CODE
We provide your group members with a 30% discount off the
list price of any of our books. At checkout, right before they put
their credit card number in, they must enter the user group coupon code UE-23AA-PEUF (case-sensitive). This coupon code is
an exclusive offer that may not be used in conjunction with any
other coupon codes.!
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
9
http://www.vom.com/svcg/index.html
CALL FOR ENTRIES!
Juror’s Award in Photography. We want to make
sure that all artists are aware of the competition. Please share this information with your members
via your web site or newsletter:
“Call for Entries: California Fine Art, juried art
show of the California State Fair seeks artworks
done in the past two years by California artists
ages 18 and up. All media, including special Division with Classes for Film, Video, and animation
(short subject or excerpt) and Computer Generated Art. Over $14,500 in prizes. Entry fee $15 per
artwork. Entry Deadline May 26, 2006. Prospectus and Entry Form now available www.bigfun.
org (Click on “Competitions and scroll down to
“Fine Art” ). See Competition handbook (available
on-line in Mid-March) for entry rules. On-line
entry available in early April.”
“Call for Entries: California Fine Art, juried art
show of the California State Fair seeks artworks
done in the past two years by California artists
ages 18 and up. All media including special Division for Photography. Over $14,500 in prizes. Entry fee $15 per artwork. Entry Deadline May 26,
2006. Prospectus and Entry Form now available
on our web site: www.bigfun.org (Click on the
word “Competitions” then scroll down to “Fine
Art” ). See Competition Handbook (available online in Mid-March) for entry rules. On-line entry
available in early April.”
New for 2006!
Instead of slides, this year the Photography Division and the Class for Computer Generated Art
require submission of digital images in all classes. Maximum of 2 images per entry, one of those two
should be a close-up or detail (do not send 2 idenSonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
tical images). Images should be in JPEG format
submitted on CD or DVD. Maximum image size:
700 pixels on the longest side. Digital images are
only for the purpose of jurying for acceptance. If
accepted, work must be printed and prepared for
display according to the rules for 2-D artworks.
Thank you!
Carol Buchanan, Coordinator
California Fine Art
California Exposition & State Fair
P.O. Box 15649
Sacramento, CA 95852
(916)263-3161
What Happens If Apple
Buys Disney?
I
wonder what
that would
mean for
any potential Apple
involvement with
the theme
parks.....
Let’s see,
ummm, the roller coasters would clock in at slower speeds than
Six Flags or other parks, but they will be much smoother rides
with far less down-time,
The teacups would undergo a complete re-design every 3 years,
Tomorrowland would be updated every 3 or 4 months, to include
special press invitations and a major media blitz,
Every new ride would have Intel inside, but the control systems
won’t be coded in Univeral Binary as that would sound too much
like a competing park,
The main street Electric Light Parade will be up to 5 times brighter, but will also be fitted with ambient light sensors.
The Disney Cruise Lines would be shut down because the ships
will be given to Steve under private ownership in lieu of a salary
for being the new ‘big cheese’ of mouseville.
—Online Funnyperson
10
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WHAT'S NEWS
CLEANING POEM I asked the Lord to tell me
Why my house is such a mess.
He asked if I’d been ‘putering’,
And I had to answer “yes.”
He told me to get off my seat
And tidy up the house.
And so I started cleaning up...
The smudges off my mouse.
I wiped and shined the topside.
That really did the trick...
I was just admiring my work...
I didn’t mean to ‘click.’
But click, I did, and oops I found
A real absorbing site
That I got SO way into...
I was into it all night.<<Sigh>>
Nothing’s changed except my mouse
It’s very, very shiny.
I guess my house will stay a mess...
While I sit here on my hiney.
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
EFF SUES AT&T OVER COOPERATION WITH NSA
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed suit against
AT&T for allegedly cooperating with the National Security
Agency (NSA) in eavesdropping on individuals without a warrant. President Bush ordered the wiretaps following the terrorist
attacks of 2001 and has vigorously defended them, saying the
Constitution and Congressional resolutions allow them. Civil
liberties groups and others reject that, saying that the wiretaps
violate existing laws on surveillance. The EFF said it identified
AT&T as one company involved in the activities and has filed
suit “to stop this invasion of privacy, prevent it from occurring
again, and make sure AT&T and all the other carriers understand there are going to be legal and economic consequences
when they fail to follow the law.” The EFF alleges that AT&T
provided the NSA with access to its network, which carries
both voice and data, and to its vast databases that store information on phone calls and Internet activity. AT&T refused to
comment on the litigation.
Yahoo, 31 January 2006
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060201/ap_on_hi_te/domestic_
spying_lawsuit
FIVE COMPANIES COOPERATE AGAINST SPYWARE
A group of computer security companies is cooperating on
an initiative to help consumers combat the growing problem
of spyware, which is estimated to be increasing by 50 to 100
percent per year. ICSA Labs, McAfee, Symantec, Thompson
Cyber Security Labs, and Trend Micro will initially offer tools
that will help users identify spyware on their systems and effectively remove it. That effort will involve developing a common
naming scheme for malicious programs and a coordination of
various removal tools. Later, the five members of the group
will work on tools that can help users avoid spyware in the first
place. A related effort called Stop Badware was announced
recently by Google, Sun Microsystems, the Berkman Center for
Internet and Society, and the Oxford Internet Institute.
BBC, 1 February 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4669304.stm
MICROSOFT OUTLINES BLOG CENSORSHIP POLICY
Microsoft has announced details of a new policy on censoring
the content of blogs maintained by its customers. According to
the new policy, blog content will only be blocked to comply
with local laws and with the terms of use of MSN Spaces, the
company’s blog application. In order to have content blocked,
a local government must demonstrate that it violates local laws.
Moreover, the content will only be blocked in areas where those
laws apply; users in other parts of the world will still be able
to see the content. In cases where content is blocked, users will
be notified and told that the reason is a government restriction.
Microsoft’s announcement follows criticism of its decision to
comply with requests of Chinese authorities to remove the blog
content of an individual the government considered a threat.
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The announcement also comes on the heels of Google’s plan to
filter the content of its search results to comply with local laws
in China. Both companies said their decisions are based on the
belief that it is better to have a presence in countries like China,
even if that requires limiting access to certain online content.
Internet News, 1 February 2006
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3582016
CONGRESS HOLDS HEARINGS ON CELL-PHONE
CUSTOMER PRIVACY
A Congressional hearing this week will address cell phone companies’ efforts to protect the privacy of their customers. The hearing comes after recent revelations that a number of data brokers
have been able to con cell phone companies into disclosing data
about customers and their calling habits, which was then sold
to third parties. The premise is that certain individuals, such as
attorneys, might want details of cell phone calls, and data brokers
supply that data. Cell phone companies and some members of
Congress, however, object to the methods that data brokers use to
obtain that information, including posing as people they are not
and using information such as Social Security numbers without
authorization. Some critics have pointed to weak policies and
practices among cell phone companies for protecting such data as
the root of the problem. Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Tex.), chairman of
the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement
that he intends to make the practice of fraudulently obtaining
such data “very illegal.”
ZDNet, 1 February 2006
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6033688.html
MTV DEBUTS UNIVERSITY CHANNEL
MTV has launched a new online station directed at college students. The station, mtvU, includes music videos, movies made by
and for college students, games, news, and a range of other content targeting 18-to-22-year-olds. The station only works on PCs
at this point, not on Macs, and invites viewers to submit their own
content. In one section of the site, student-submitted videos capture short interviews with people students see as celebrities, such
as Mark Romanek, a director of music videos. Other resources on
the channel cover topics such as sexual health and how to get and
keep a job. The channel is interactive, allowing viewers to pause,
rewind, and fast forward, the way they can with TiVo and similar
services. According to an MTV press release for the new station,
the target audience are college students because they are “the first
adopters of new music, new technology, and new trends.”
New York Times, 31 January 2006 (registration req’d)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/arts/television/31mtvu.html
NUMBER OF ID THEFTS DROPS, COSTS RISE
According to a new report from Javelin Strategy and Research
and the Better Business Bureau, the number of individuals victimized by identity theft has fallen in recent years, but the amount
of money lost to such malfeasance is climbing. Researchers found
that about 8.9 million people suffered identity theft last year,
compared to 9.3 million the year before. In 2003, the Federal
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
Trade Commission estimated that identity thieves successfully
targeted 10.1 million individuals. Experts said the decline in
the number of victims indicates heightened awareness and
better tools to combat identity crimes. Even as the number of
victims has dropped, the total losses to such crimes has risen
from $53.2 billion in 2003 to $56.6 billion last year. “Criminals
are building up more expertise,” said James Van Dyke, founder
and principal analyst of Javelin, “and they have to soak victims
for more money.”
Wall Street Journal, 30 January 2006 (sub. req’d)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113858617249559658.html
DEBATING THE BEST WAY TO SPREAD TECHNOLOGY
Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Laboratory,
has sparked an ongoing debate about how best to bring technology to the developing world. Negroponte has created a
nonprofit organization called One Laptop Per Child to develop
a $100 laptop to be marketed to countries with limited access
to technology. His vision is reportedly taking shape, with a
manufacturer lined up and project organizers close to signing
deals for seven million of the units. Negroponte reportedly
talked with both Microsoft and Apple about supplying operating systems for his $100 laptops, but he ultimately settled on
Linux, a decision that is said to have riled Microsoft Chairman
Bill Gates. Speaking at the recent Consumer Electronics show,
Gates suggested that instead of an inexpensive laptop, modified cell phones are a better way to spread technology. Gates
showed a mockup of such a phone, which would connect to a
TV and a keyboard. Negroponte said his group considered a
similar approach but dismissed it as too impractical compared
to the laptop idea.
New York Times, 30 January 2006 (registration req’d)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/30/technology/30gates.html
IBM JOINS FREE-DATABASE CROWD
IBM has released a free version of its DB2 database, joining
Microsoft and Oracle in offering free database software to
developers. The goal of such products is to encourage software
developers to use the products and write programs for them and
to compete with the growing stable of open source databases,
including the popular MySQL. According to research firm
Evans Data, nearly three-quarters of software developers have
worked with an open source database in the past year. The free
version of IBM’s database is functionally the same as the paid
version, but it cannot run on all hardware. Systems that can
run the new database must be limited to two processors or two
dual-core chips, and there is a memory limit of 4 GB.
CNET, 30 January 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-6032676.html
KEEPING ONLINE ARTICLES AVAILABLE
A group of libraries and publishers are cooperating on a pilot
project to ensure access to online journals. Libraries at five
universities, as well as the New York Public Library, will work
with nine publishers on an archive that will consist of copies of
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journal articles from participating publishers stored on 10 servers at the universities. Those archived copies will be unavailable
to the public, but the system will monitor the Web sites of the
journals that published those articles. When the system detects
that the publisher’s online version of an article is unavailable for
an extended period of time, the system’s governing board will
decide whether to make the archived copy available. The goal is
to ensure long-term access to journal articles, even when publishers go out of business or computer systems suffer severe outages
or losses of data. The effort is important because libraries and
publishers are frequently at odds over how and when to provide
online access to copyrighted material. Those involved hope the
effort will help the groups work together toward a common goal.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 25 January 2006 (sub. req’d)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/01/2006012502t.htm
NEW SITE AIMS TO IDENTIFY
MAKERS OF MALICIOUS
PROGRAMS
Researchers at Harvard Law School
and Oxford University are launching a
Web site that will identify organizations
that distribute spyware, adware, and
other unwanted computer programs, as
well as the tactics they employ to intall
their applications. StopBadware.org
was financed initially by companies including Google, Lenovo,
and Sun Microsystems. The site will also include an area where
consumers can submit testimonials about their experiences
with different software they have downloaded. John G. Palfrey
Jr., executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and
Society at Harvard, said, “We want to turn the spotlight on the
bad actors, but also give ordinary users a place to go and get an
early warning before they download something that might harm
their computer.” According to the Pew Internet & American Life
Project, 59 million U.S. adults said their computers were infected
with spyware last year. Data from Consumer Reports indicate that
despite consumer spending of $2.6 billion over the past two years
on antivirus and antispyware tools, users still spent $3.5 billion
in damages over the same period due to unwanted software. New
York Times, 25 January 2006 (registration req’d)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/technology/25spy.html
GOOGLE TO CENSOR SEARCH RESULTS IN CHINA
Google will launch search and news sites in China this week that
will block access to information the Chinese government considers
objectionable. Chinese officials have a long track record of censoring speech and ideas, and, according to Andrew McLaughlin,
senior policy counsel for Google, the new sites “will comply with
local Chinese laws and regulations.” Search results from which
content has been excluded will notify users that not all results are
being displayed. Google said that the decision to offer its services
even if they are censored reflects the belief that limited access to
Internet resources is better than no access, which would be the
alternative if Google did not comply with local legislation. “We
must balance our commitments,” said McLaughlin, “to satisfy the
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
interest of users, expand access to information, and respond to
local conditions.” Reporters Without Borders, an organization
that advocates for freedom of the press, was highly critical of
the decision, saying, “The new Google version means that even
if a human rights publication is not blocked by local firewalls,
it has no chance of being read in China.”
CNET, 24 January 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6030784.html
LATEST CAN-SPAM VIOLATOR FACES 25 YEARS
A California man has pleaded guilty to using computer “bots”
to surreptitiously take control of 400,000 computers, which
were used to distribute adware, spyware, and other unwanted
computer code. Jeanson James Ancheta, 20, admitted to earning more than $60,000 from using the illicit system of computers and renting the system to others who used them to launch
their own malicious attacks. Ancheta’s actions were
in violation of the federal CAN-SPAM Act, and they
also caused damage to computers at the U.S. Naval Air
Warfare Center and the Defense Information Systems
Agency. As part of his plea agreement, Ancheta will
forfeit $60,000 in cash, a BMW, and computer equipment. He will also pay $15,000 toward damages to
federal computers and face a sentence of up to 25
years in prison for his actions. Internet News, 24
January 2006
http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3579591
MICROSOFT TO LICENSE SOURCE CODE
In an effort to avoid a stiff fine issued by the European
Commission, Microsoft has agreed to license some of its source
code. European antitrust regulators have found Microsoft guilty
of abusing its monopoly power and have insisted on changes
to the company’s practices to address the violations, including
offering a version of its operating system without the Microsoft
Media Player and providing access to its source code to rivals
so they can develop software that will properly interoperate
with Windows computers. Microsoft met the first condition,
but commissioners last month said that if the company continued to deny access to competitors, it would face a fine of nearly
$2.5 million per day, retroactive to December 15 of last year.
Microsoft is appealing the rulings against it but has said that
while those appeals are pending, it will license the source code
for its Windows Server System. The European Commission
will review Microsoft’s proposal before deciding whether to
fine the company.
ZDNet, 25 January 2006
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6030879.html
SOME FACULTY SEE DOWNSIDE OF TECHNOLOGY
Despite the obvious benefits of putting lecture materials
online, some faculty have seen a sharp rise in absenteeism that
results from students’ having access to class content over their
computers. Terre Allen, a communication studies scholar at
Cal State Long Beach, said that when she posted most of her
notes online, attendance in her classes dropped from about 65
13
percent to only about 35 percent. “Too much online instruction is
a bad thing,” she said. Faculty at other institutions have reported
similar drops in attendance when lecture notes are available on
the Web, and many have adjusted their approach to teaching in
an attempt to deal with the change. Some, like Lee Ohanian, an
economics professor at UCLA, only post selections from lecture
notes. Others have resorted to giving more pop quizzes, including test questions that specifically are not covered in the notes
posted online, and offering extra credit to students who show up
for class.
Los Angeles Times, 17 January 2006
h t t p : / / w w w. l a t i m e s . c o m / t e c h n o l o g y / l a - m e - n o s h o w 17jan17,1,3883942.story
YAHOO TO OPEN MORE RESEARCH CENTERS
Yahoo has announced plans to expand its stable of research centers outside the United States, with new facilities in Spain and
Chile added to the four U.S. locations. Ricardo Baeza-Yates, a
native of Chile who has worked with universities in Santiago and
in Barcelona, will head the new research centers. Baeza-Yates
authored “Modern Information Retrieval,” a highly regarded
textbook on search technology, as well as other books. The center
in Barcelona will operate with the Barcelona Media Innovation
Centre, with support from Universitat Pompeu Fabra and other
local colleges. The Santiago research center will be hosted by the
Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the University
of Chile and will work in cooperation with the Center for Web
Research, which was founded by Baeza-Yates.
Areas of investigation at the new sites will include
Web search and data-extraction technologies.
CNET, 23 January 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6029663.html
AOL AND YAHOO EXPERIMENT WITH EMAIL POSTAGE
In an effort to limit unwanted and fraudulent e-mail,
AOL and Yahoo have announced plans to begin
charging “postage” for delivering some e-mail to
their customers. Under the system, companies that
pay to have their e-mail delivered--between 1/4
and 1 cent per message--will receive preferential
service. A third party, Goodmail, will collect the fees and verify
the source of messages. E-mail from nonpaying senders will still
be delivered, but it will be routed through spam filters and other
mechanisms, which could prevent it from reaching its target. The
hope is that the fees will discourage spammers from sending billions of unsolicited messages every day. A spokesperson from
AOL compared the plan to the current functioning of the postal
system. Certified mail, for example, is guaranteed to be delivered
“in a way that is different from other mail,” he said. Some analysts said e-mail postage will only lead to disagreements between
senders and ISPs. Many e-mail marketers also rejected the idea,
saying that there are already mechanisms in place, such as a service called Bonded Sender, that verify the legitimacy of e-mail
and that cost significantly less than the proposed charges.
New York Times, 5 February 2006 (registration req’d)
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/technology/05AOL.html
CELL PHONES AS TRACKING TOOLS
Companies that use cell phones to track people have seen significant increases in business in the past few years. In Britain,
firms such as Followus and Verilocation frequently work with
employers who want to keep tabs on staff, despite concerns
that the service infringes on individuals’ civil rights. Kevin
Brown of Followus noted that his company’s service requires
the consent of those being tracked. Users must agree to having their cell phones tracked, and periodic messages are sent
randomly to users reminding them that their movements are
being followed. Officials at Verilocation pointed to such events
as the bombings in London last summer as times when being
able to locate all of your employees is highly valuable. Experts
on business processes said being able to track employees can
allow companies to provide better service to customers by,
for example, letting them know exactly where a technician is
and when he will arrive at a customer’s home. Officials from
Liberty, a civil rights group, were unconvinced, saying that
employees’ rights in the workplace have been eroded and that
there is a significant risk that businesses will misuse tracking
data. CNET, 5 February 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-6035317.html
U.S. LEVELS OUT IN INTERNET ACCESS IN THE HOME
Parks Associates, a market research firm, reports that most of
the U.S. homes that do not have Internet access
do not intend to sign up for it. A survey of 1,000
U.S. households found that of the 36 percent not
online, only 2 percent planned to sign up for an
Internet service this year. Of those households not
connected, cost was a factor for 4 percent; 31 percent said they had access at work and didn’t need
it at home; 18 percent weren’t interested in the
Web; 8 percent weren’t sure how to use the Web;
and 39 percent chose the category “other reason.”
The company predicts only a 1 percent inrease
in Internet access this year, to 64 percent of U.S.
homes. InformationWeek, 24 February 2006
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=180207781
COST INHIBITS RURAL BROADBAND
INTERNET ACCESS
A study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found
that although 24 percent of rural Americans had broadband
Internet service at home by the end of 2005--compared to 9
percent in 2003--the rate of adoption continues to lag behind
cities and suburbs (39 percent in 2005). The cost of supplying
broadband Internet to rural areas has inhibited some phone and
cable companies from investing in the wiring and equipment
needed, according to the report. The number of rural residents
who bought satellite Internet access grew from 1 percent to 5
percent between 2003 and 2005.
San Jose Mercury News, 27 February 2006
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REPORT SAYS OUTSOURCING FEARS EXAGGERATED
A new report from the Association for Computing Machinery
(ACM) argues that fears of a wholesale migration of high-tech
jobs away from the United States are not supported by the data
so far. Representing a year’s work by a study group, the report
predicts continued offshoring of 2 to 3 percent of IT jobs each
year for the next decade, but it notes that the number of high-tech
jobs continues to grow and already exceeds the number at the
height of the dot-com boom. Although the report acknowledges
losses to lower-wage markets and notes that the marketplace for
technology is tightening, “the notion that information technology jobs are disappearing is just nonsense,”
according to Moshe Vardi, computer scientist at
Rice University and cochair of the study group.
David Patterson, president of the ACM and
computer science professor at the University
of California, Berkeley, said that exaggerated
fears of outsourcing have hurt the U.S. market
by discouraging college students from pursuing
careers in IT, which, in turn, will lead to fewer
qualified members of the U.S. IT workforce.
New York Times, 23 February 2006 (registration
req’d) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/
technology/23outsource.html
MCAFEE AUDITOR LOSES EMPLOYEE
DATA
Deloitte and Touche, the external auditor of computer-security
firm McAfee, has lost a CD containing unencrypted data on more
than 9,000 McAfee employees. The CD was left in a seat pocket
on an airliner on December 15, though the loss was not reported
to Deloitte officials until January 8, and it took until January 30
to determine what was on the disk. A spokesperson for McAfee,
Siobhan MacDermott, said auditors commonly have access to
the kind of data that was on the CD and that the decision not
to encrypt the data was Deloitte’s. MacDermott said, “We have
policies in place to prevent this from happening” and noted that
McAfee and Deloitte are working to prevent such a loss from happening again. Ken McEldowney, executive director of Consumer
Action, expressed dismay at the news. “How hard would it be to
encrypt the data?” he said. “How hard would it be to make sure
important information like that is not on CDs that are not under
tight control by the company?”
San Jose Mercury News, 24 February 2006
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13952271.htm
SPAMMER SENTENCED FOR STEALING
PERSONAL DATA
A federal judge in Arkansas has sentenced a well-known spammer to eight years in prison for illegally accessing and downloading more than one billion records from data broker Acxiom.
Prosecutors alleged that in 2003, Scott Levine stole a password
file from Acxiom, which claims to have the world’s largest
database of consumer information. Levine then used those
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
passwords to download other sensitive information. Levine
operated Snipermail.com, an e-mail operation that was repeatedly accused of sending spam and claiming that it was doing
so with “opt in” authorization from recipients. Although there
was no evidence that Levine used the information he stole from
Acxiom for identity theft, a federal jury found Levine guilty
in August of 2005 of unauthorized access to a computer connected to the Internet. Levine was also fined $12,300 and may
be forced to pay restitution. ZDNet, 22 February 2006
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6042290.html
WI-FI HEALTH CONCERNS LEAD TO FREEZE
The president of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario,
has forbidden expansion of the institution’s very limited wireless network due to health concerns over
the technology. According to Fred Gilbert, “The jury
is still out on the impact that electromagnetic forces
have on human physiology.” Gilbert said that while
he is president, the policy would stay in place. Gilbert
pointed to other sources of electromagnetic forces as
possibly being a factor in human cancers. The decision has riled the students of Lakehead as well as
Canadian health officials. Adam Krupper, president
of the Lakehead student union, said, “Considering
this is a university known for its great use of technology, it’s kind of bad that we can’t get Wi-Fi.” Robert
Bradley, director of consumer and clinical radiation
protection at Canada’s federal health department,
dismissed Gilbert’s concerns, saying, “If you look at the body
of science, we’re confident that there is no demonstrable
health effect or effects from wireless technology.” Yahoo, 23
February 2006 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060223/tc_nm/
life_canada_internet_dc
PROFESSOR CANNED FOR ONLINE POSTINGS
A tenured professor at the University of Saskatchewan has been
fired for posting derogatory comments on RateMyProfessors.
com about other faculty at the university. Stephen Berman was
accused of using the Web site to criticize other faculty over
a seven-month period in 2002 and 2003. Although the comments were made anonymously, presumably by students, some
of the targeted faculty suspected that Berman was involved.
A member of the university’s IT staff determined that some
of the 80 postings in question had been made from Berman’s
office. Berman, who was on the school’s math faculty for 30
years, later admitted making the postings and sent a letter of
apology to his department. Nevertheless, Peter MacKinnon,
the university’s president, recommended that Berman be fired,
a decision supported by an independent arbitration committee.
The committee found that Berman had sufficiently violated the
conditions of his employment to terminate him despite his having tenure. “In a university context,” said the committee, “it is
quite simply intolerable for a senior professor to pretend to be
a student in order to anonymously attack his colleagues.”
Chronicle of Higher Education, 24 February 2006 (sub. req’d)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/02/2006022403t.htm
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IU PROFESSOR INTRODUCES ACTIVE COOKIE
A researcher at Indiana University has developed technology
he calls “active cookies” that he says will help defeat online
scams. Markus Jacobsson, associate professor of informatics and
associate director of the Indiana University Center for Applied
Cybersecurity Research, has teamed up with Ari Juels, manager
and principal research scientist at RSA Laboratories, to form a
company called RavenWhite to market the technology. Standard
cookies are intended only to identify users to a Web host.
According to RavenWhite, active cookies also
authenticate users. Pharming scams and other
similar malicious activities redirect users from
intended Web sites to bogus ones without the
user’s knowing. Active cookies would reportedly alert users to the redirect and foil the scam.
The company said it is working on technology that would extend the protections offered
by active cookies to users who use multiple
computers or who change browser settings that
affect how cookies are handled.
PCWorld, 20 February 2006 http://www.pcworld.
idg.com.au/index.php/id;215389687;fp;2;fpid;1
NEW VIRUS JUMPS FROM PCS TO MOBILE
DEVICES
The Mobile Antivirus Researchers Association
(MARA) announced a new virus that can move
from PCs to mobile devices. A text file that
comes with the virus says it is a proof-of-concept but hints that others will follow, saying “now it’s one big
world open to all.” On a PC, the virus replicates repeatedly and
copies itself into the registry, eventually affecting performance.
The virus transfers itself to mobile devices through ActiveSync,
Microsoft’s application that synchronizes data between computers and portable devices. When the virus reaches a mobile device
that is running Windows CE or Mobile OS, it deletes all of the
files in the My Documents folder. MARA will provide the virus
code to antivirus companies and security experts.
PCWorld, 28 February 2006
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124887,00.asp
UN MEETING TO ADDRESS CONTROL OF INTERNET
The United Nations (UN) is hosting an international conference
this week in Tunisia to address concerns about U.S. control of
the Internet. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) was set up in 1998 to oversee the Domain
Name System, which reconciles Web addresses and directs
Internet traffic to proper destinations. Despite an understanding
that ICANN would become independent of any national ties,
the Bush administration this year rejected such a move, and
the organization still operates under the authority of the U.S.
Department of Commerce. This situation has left many other
countries complaining that the United States holds the power over
a global resource, and nine different proposals for putting ICANN
under the guidance of an international body will be addressed
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
at the meeting in Tunisia, which will host as many as 15,000
delegates. Some individuals who were part of the work that
led to the Internet have said that concerns over ICANN are
misguided. Leonard Kleinrock, computer scientist at UCLA,
said, “Everyone seems to think that the D.N.S. system is a big
deal, but it’s not the heartbeat of the Internet.” Robert Kahn,
one of the developers behind TCP/IP, said of ICANN, “There
is nothing in there to control, and there are huge issues that the
governments of the world really do need to work on.”
New York Times, 14 November 2005 (registration req’d)
h t t p : / / w w w. n y t i m e s . c o m / 2 0 0 5 / 11 / 1 4 /
business/14register.html
GOOGLE
FLOATS
IDEA
OF RENTING BOOKS
Google has reportedly proposed a plan to rent
books online. An unnamed publisher said that
Google suggested the idea of letting consumers pay a fee, equal to 10 percent of the price
of a printed copy of the book, to have online
access to the text for one week. Rented books
would not be downloadable or printable,
according to the publisher, which said that
although the fee Google suggested is too low,
the notion of renting texts might represent a
viable new model for content distribution. A
spokesperson from Google said that although
“Google Print is exploring new access models to help authors and publishers sell more
books online,” the company at this time has
nothing to announce. Other publishers said they were curious
about a rental program for books and are interested in hearing
more details, as long as the program ensures that copyright
holders are compensated. David Steinberger, chief executive
of Perseus Books, also noted that for a rental program to be
successful, it would have to augment physical book sales, not
limit them. Wall Street Journal, (sub. req’d)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113192806168096032.html
SNOCAP ADDS WARNER MUSIC TO QUIVER
Online music service Snocap has reached an agreement with
Warner Music Group, giving Snocap deals with all four major
record labels as well as a number of smaller, independent
labels. The company already had struck deals with Sony BMG,
Universal Music, and EMI Group. Snocap was founded by
Shawn Fanning, creator of the original Napster. The company
uses “fingerprinting” technology to label electronic music,
which gives consumers online access to music while giving record labels the ability to control how files are used.
Copyright owners can register songs with Snocap and then use
the company’s management system to set properties for how
each track can be used. According to the company, consumers
who use Snocap can be assured of having only legal downloads
of music, without the risk of litigation for illegal file trading
and without the risk of downloading viruses or other malware
that is sometimes included in music on P2P services.
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CNET, http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5949869.html
I2HUB SHUTS DOWN
I2Hub, the P2P service that ran on Internet2’s very high-speed
network, has ceased operation amid growing concerns over
the liability of such services for copyright infringements by
their users. I2Hub was launched in early 2004 on the academic
and research network that connects more than 200 locations.
Although the service made forays into legal activities, it was
largely used by students at connected campuses to trade music
and movies at speeds substantially higher than possible with
commercial Internet services. A number of i2Hub users had been
targeted by the entertainment industry for copyright infringement, however, and the service itself was cited by the Recording
Industry Association of America in September as a possible target
of legal action. The closure of i2Hub follows that of Grokster last
week and an announcement by eDonkey, the
most popular P2P service, that it would change
its business model to a paid download service.
CNET, http://news.com.com/2100-1027_35952060.html
IFPI RATCHETS UP LAWSUITS
The International Federation of the
Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has filed lawsuits
against 2,100 individuals in a number of countries for allegedly sharing copyrighted material
over the Internet. The new round of lawsuits,
which targets users in the United Kingdom,
France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden,
Argentina, Singapore, and Hong Kong, brings
the IFPI’s total to more than 3,800. In the
United States, nearly 16,000 individuals have
been sued for illegal file trading, resulting in
more than 3,500 settlements so far. The sharp
upswing in the number of lawsuits from the
IFPI comes after strong victories for copyright
holders in the United States, Australia, and South Korea against
operators of P2P services, which in those countries can be held
liable for copyright infringement by their users. IFPI Chief John
Kennedy said the new suits represent “a significant escalation of
our enforcement actions” and noted that through such lawsuits,
thousands of individuals “have learnt to their cost the legal and
financial risks involved in file-sharing copyrighted music.”
BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4438324.stm
U.S. TO KEEP CONTROL OF ICANN
Delegates at an international meeting in Tunisia have agreed to
allow oversight of the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) to
remain with the United States. Leading up to the World Summit
on the Information Society, a number of nations had put forth proposals that would have required the United States to cede DNS
control to an international body. Instead, agreement was reached
to leave DNS management with the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and create an international forum to address concerns, though the forum will not have
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
binding authority. The Internet Governance Forum is to begin
meeting next year and will address issues both within the purview of ICANN, such as the addition of domains in languages
other than English, and outside ICANN’s authority, such as
spam and cybercrime. San Jose Mercury News,
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13180104.htm
MIT DEBUTS $100 LAPTOP
At the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia,
Nicholas Negroponte, director of MIT’s Media Lab, will show
an early version of a $100 laptop that he announced in January.
Negroponte has said that such a device would bring the fruits
of technology to millions of schoolchildren in developing
nations, spanning the digital divide and spurring economic
development. According to those involved with the project, a
number of countries have expressed interest, including Brazil,
China, Egypt, Nigeria, Thailand, and South
Africa, though development remains before
orders can be placed. In addition, the governor
of Massachusetts has called on his state to provide the new laptops to every middle and high
school student. Critics of the program argue
that people in developing nations often need
more basic supplies, such as food and clean
water, and some also note that the educational
value of laptops for every student has not been
proven. The devices use the Linux operating
system and flash memory; they do not include
cameras or DVD-ROM drives, as originally
planned. They run on C batteries that can be
recharged using a hand crank attached to the
device.
Chronicle of Higher Education,
h t t p : / / c h r o n i c l e . c o m / f r e e / 2 0 0 5 / 11 /
2005111602t.htm
OSDL OPENS PATENT LIBRARY
The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has unveiled
its public patent library (PatentCommons.org), which offers a
free searchable database of patents donated to the open source
community. The library is a catalogue of patents whose owners
have agreed not to exert any control over the technologies as
long as they are used to improve the open source community.
The OSDL does not hold any of the patents but simply offers
the site as a clearinghouse for information about patents, where
they came from, what they do, and under what conditions they
can be used. Officials from the OSDL said they expect more
patents to be added to the database soon but that they wanted
to launch the service now, ahead of patent pledges they expect
later. The site should free open source developers from much of
the uncertainty they have when using patented technologies in
their development efforts. Internet News, http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3564201
PROGRAM WILL SHED LIGHT ON DOWNLOADS
A new initiative is designed to give computer users the infor-
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mation they need to avoid downloading software that includes
ad programs or other pieces of code that they do not want. The
Trusted Download Program, created by America Online, Yahoo,
CNET Networks, Verizon, and Computer Associates, will offer a
certification program for companies that offer downloads. Rather
than determining what should or should not be allowed in a
download, however, the certifications simply require vendors to
disclose exactly what the products do and what other components,
such as adware or spyware, are included. Users are then given the
opportunity before downloading any software to see that information. Before the software can be downloaded, users must explicitly agree to the indicated components of the download. Consent
is then required again before the software can be installed. Clear
instructions for uninstalling the software
must also be provided.
CNET, http://news.com.com/21001029_3-5954668.html
MICROSOFT TO OFFER HIGHEND COMPUTING SOFTWARE
Microsoft has announced plans to
begin offering tools that will pool the
resources of desktop computers running Microsoft software into highperformance computing systems. The
market for high-performance computing has been dominated by Linux and
UNIX systems, and market analysts at
International Data Corporation noted that demand for such systems has grown faster than the rest of the server market in recent
years. A Microsoft official said their target is not the “highest-end
systems but...divisional and departmental computing systems.”
Microsoft will also provide support for 10 supercomputing
installations around the world, including facilities at Cornell
University, the University of Utah, University of Stuttgart, and
Shanghai Jiao Tong University. To be successful, Microsoft
will have to compete with existing tools for moderately sized
high-performance environments, such as a program called Linux
Rocks. Linux Rocks is already in use at more than 500 academic
and technical sites and is available for free. New York Times, (registration req’d)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/15/technology/15super.html
ONLINE EDUCATION EXPANDS IN AFRICA
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has announced a
grant to fund online education efforts in Africa. The $900,000
grant will support the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa
consortium, which is working to develop an online portal that will
offer a broad array of educational materials from institutions such
as MIT, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and Chinese
Open Resources for Education. According to Kuzvinetsa Peter
Dzvimbo, rector of the African Virtual University, which is part
of the consortium, Africa is in great need of math and science
teachers, and the new portal will be used in “teach the teacher”
programs to educate new instructors in sub-Saharan Africa.
The online resources will not be limited to teachers, however.
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
Beginning in Tanzania and South Africa and spreading to other
African countries, the portal will be openly available to anyone
with Internet access. Dzvimbo said he hopes that eventually
teachers in Africa will join the online efforts alongside the professors and students in the United States who will be initially
involved. Inside Higher Ed,
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/11/17/africa
REACTION TO EXPECTED EXTENSION OF PATRIOT ACT PROVISIONS
Groups opposed to two provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act
up for review expressed disappointment at a tentative plan
to extend both. The proposed extension was written by a
conference committee charged with
reconciling House and Senate versions of a bill covering the parts of
the act that will otherwise expire at
the end of the year. Under the plan,
the provision that allows the government to issue so-called national
security letters without a judge’s
approval would be made permanent
and would allow for criminal prosecutions of individuals who reveal
that they have received such a letter.
The plan does not make changes
to the second section of the act at
issue, the library provision, that were
included in the Senate bill. Those changes included requiring
the government to demonstrate a connection between terrorists and individuals whose records were sought. The Senate
bill also called for another review of the library provision in
four years; under the proposal, it would not be reviewed for
seven years. The plan does include limited concessions. Those
who receive national security letters would be allowed to
discuss them with their attorneys, and the government would
be required to disclose certain details about how the national
security letters are used.
Chronicle of Higher Education, (sub. req’d)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/11/2005111801t.htm
HACKER HITS IU
Officials at Indiana University reported that a routine scan of
computer systems turned up malicious software on the computer of a faculty member at the Kelley School of Business.
According to James Anderson, the school?s director of information technology, the software could have been used to access
the personal information of about 5,300 current and former
students at the university, though no reports have surfaced
that the information was used illicitly. The school has notified
the students who are possibly affected and encouraged them
to monitor their credit reports for suspicious activity. Daniel
Smith, dean of the Kelley School, said all of the institution’s
computers are being audited to ensure they are free of malicious software and have current antivirus and system patches
installed. Associated Press, http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/
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fortwayne/news/local/13202338.htm
FEDS WIN GUILTY PLEAS IN ID THEFT RACKET
Six individuals caught in a Secret Service sting called Operation
Firewall pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit credit and
bank card fraud and ID document fraud. Two other individuals involved in the scam previously pleaded guilty to the same
charge. All were among 19 who were indicted last year, charged
with running a private-access Web site where people from around
the globe bought and sold sensitive information, such as Social
Security numbers, credit card
numbers, and fake IDs. The
ID theft ring is thought to have
trafficked in more than 1.5 million credit card numbers, close
to 18 million e-mail accounts,
and other information that was
used to buy and sell merchandise online. One who pleaded
guilty, Wesley Lanning, specialized in making and selling
fake IDs. His attorney, Marc
Leibman, said that although
Lanning sold most of the IDs to
teens to use to buy beer, “obviously everyone is concerned
that some...militant is going to
get one of Wesley Lanning’s
fake IDs and use it to transport
a bomb.” Wired News,
http://www.wired.com/news/
infostructure/0,1377,69616,00.html
LIBRARIES FOLLOWING RETAILERS’ LEAD
Libraries increasingly find themselves in a quandary between
growing expectations among patrons for personalized services
and libraries’ traditional stance as a strong advocate for personal
privacy. Commercial enterprises such as Amazon and Netflix
typically make suggestions to customers based on previous purchases and can notify users when certain products are available.
The library at North Carolina State University is implementing
a program that offers students similar services based on past
usage. To offer such services, however, the library must keep
more-detailed patron records than many libraries keep, given the
authority of government officials under the USA PATRIOT Act
to subpoena those records. Officials from the university report
that students are comfortable trading some measure of privacy
for the convenience of personalized services. Another program at
the University of Notre Dame offers similar suggestions to users,
which, according to its developer, should simplify research for
many students. Michael Golrick, the city librarian in Bridgeport,
Conn., said that the large numbers of immigrants in his community would not be so willing to trade privacy for convenience.
Many of them, he said, “came to this country to avoid the kinds of
surveillance and persecution we’re seeing tinges of today.”
New York Times, (registration req’d)
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/weekinreview/20cowan.
html
UNIVERSITY
COMBINES
EXERCISE
AND
TECHNOLOGY
The recreation center at Minnesota State University now
includes computers that can be used while people are exercising. Although many fitness centers include individual TVs for
treadmills and other pieces of equipment, officials at Minnesota
State wanted to offer something more. They set up 40 adjustable stands, each of which has
a computer, monitor, mouse,
and keyboard. Students using
the rec center can surf the
Web, check e-mail, or perform
other computer tasks while
they exercise. One professor
at the university said he will
incorporate the new facilities
into one of his fitness courses, where students will exercise while taking quizzes and
doing other activities on the
computers. Officials at other
schools said they would consider adding similar facilities
to their rec centers, noting that
more and more students grew
up multitasking and expecting
to have access to a computer
all the time. Some disagree
with the approach. Stephanie Maks, who worked as a personal
trainer for 20 years, said often the biggest hurdle to an effective
exercise program is letting go of technology. “Don’t bring the
office with you to the gym,” she said.
Wired News,
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,69633,00.html
CITIES AND TOWNS ADDING WIRELESS NETWORKS
Cities and towns across the United States are launching, or
announcing plans to launch, wireless broadband networks.
Wireless technologies are evolving to allow increasingly
secure, robust networks in city-wide installations. Large cities,
such as Philadelphia and San Francisco, and smaller towns,
such as Lebanon, Oregon, are establishing wireless municipal
networks for reasons ranging from economic development to
improved services for residents. In Tucson, Arizona, a wireless network will allow communication between ambulances
and one of the city’s hospitals, improving patient care. That
network is expected to be online in mid-2006, and the service
could be extended to other medical facilities in the city. Other
municipalities see wireless Internet access as a valuable step
in narrowing the digital divide and bringing the benefits of
technology to lower-income residents. In Mountain View,
California, Google, which is headquartered there, will develop
a wireless broadband network at no cost to the city. Federal
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Computer Week,
http://www.fcw.com/article91475-11-18-05-Web
BRITISH ORGANIZATION URGES DATA SHARING
In the United Kingdom, a report from the Council for Science
and Technology calls on the government to share information
among its various agencies while keeping a close eye on privacy
concerns. Due to the sheer amount of data that the government
collects and stores, pooling that data
can facilitate improved public services,
as happens already with health-related
data. Mark Walport, head of medical charity at the Wellcome Trust and
author of the report, said such data
sharing in medical research has uncovered links between health problems and
social factors and can allow researchers
to closely track the effectiveness of
various treatments over time. Walport
suggested that similar benefits could be
derived from governmental sharing of
other types of data, which is currently
not being used effectively. Walport said
he believes that with adequate creative
thinking, the government could see
significant benefits from sharing data
while ensuring protection for personal
privacy.
BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4455306.stm
ICANN TO CONSIDER SINGLELETTER WEB ADDRESSES
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) has agreed to consider single-letter addresses such as
a.com in response to company requests. (Six companies with
single-letter names were allowed to keep their names when
the existing system was established.) In deciding whether to
accept single-letter names, ICANN will also have to determine
how to sell the names and whether companies will have to seek
individual entries across all suffixes. Domain name brokers and
others expect intense demand for the names because of their rarity. There are no plans to consider two-letter names because of
possible confusion with two-letter country code suffixes. Yahoo, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051128/ap_on_hi_te/single_letter_domains
DUTCH COMPANY DUMPS COMMON TOP-LEVEL DOMAIN NAMES
Amsterdam-based UnifiedRoot S&M BV has created an Internet
addressing system that eliminates top-level domains such as
.com and .edu, allowing organizations and individuals to register
Internet addresses ending with the name of their businesses or
other words. The new system can combine top-level domains
with second-level domains for what the company calls more intuitive addresses for different categories of products and services,
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
such as vegetables.supermarket. UnifiedRoot has established
13 master root servers worldwide to run its domain name system. To avoid conflicts, the company said, it will not register
top-level domain names already registered by the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Existing Internet service providers will have to update their
server directories to accommodate the new system names.
ComputerWorld, http://www.computerworld.com/news/2005/
story/0,11280,106559,00.html
U.S. SUPREME COURT TO HEAR EBAY PATENT CASE
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a patent-infringement lawsuit involving eBay
and a patent holding company that eBay
lost in 2003. MercExchange holds a patent over sales and purchasing methods
used in online auctions. The appeal deals
with whether the U.S. District Court that
handled the case should have issued a
permanent injunction against eBay. The
Federal U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,
which handles patent lawsuits on appeal,
ruled that the federal trial judge should
have issued a permanent injunction
against eBay, which said they believe the
legal reasoning used will force district
courts to issue more injunctions in patent
lawsuits. Meanwhile, Congress is considering legislation that would change how
patent injunctions are issued by federal
courts. The U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office is also exploring the issue. Wall Street Journal, (sub.
req’d)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113319064690608067.html
DUTCH SUPREME COURT ORDERS LYCOS CLIENT REVEALED
The Dutch Supreme Court has ordered Lycos to reveal the
name of a client who anonymously posted slanderous allegations against an Internet postage stamp dealer on a member
site. The dealer took Lycos to court in 2003 to determine the
client’s identity in order to pursue financial damages. The
court found the claim of damages sufficient to order Lycos to
release the client’s name and address, even though a criminal offense had not been committed. The court rejected the
company’s argument that client details should be released only
to the police in cases where a crime is suspected. Copyright
groups believe the ruling will facilitate prosecution of those
who illegally exchange music and movies online, a view supported when the Brain Institute, which represents entertainment
companies in the Netherlands, issued a statement that the ruling
will enable it to pursue damages against illegal file swappers.
InformationWeek,
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?arti
cleID=174401810
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AUSTRALIAN COURT ORDERS KAZAA TO INSTALL KEYWORD FILTER
The Federal Court of Australia in Sydney has ordered the operators of the Kazaa file-sharing service to install a keyword filter
to screen out copyrighted material by December 5. The filter
will keep users from trading files containing keywords from a
list of 3,000 chosen by record companies. The order follows a
September ruling that found Kazaa had been used extensively
to infringe copyrights. Sharman Networks, the owner of Kazaa,
won an extension until February 2006 to
comply fully with the court’s injunction to
block file trading of copyrighted materials.
The filtering system is seen as an interim
measure, with Sharman expected to appeal
in early 2006. InfoWorld,
h t t p : / / w w w. i n f o w o r l d . c o m / a r t i cle/05/11/28/HNjudgeorderskazaa_1.html
CDC PROPOSES TRACKING
PASSENGERS TO PREVENT PANDEMICS
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) proposed federal regulations to electronically track more than
600 million U.S. airline passengers a year
traveling on more than 7 million flights
through 67 hub airports. The proposed
regulations are posted on the CDC’s Web
site and will be available for a 60-day comment period in the Federal Register starting
November 30. They would require airlines,
travel agents, and global reservation systems to collect personal information beyond
that now collected by the Transportation
Security Administration or the Homeland Security Department.
The same rules would apply to passengers on international cruise
lines and ferries that dock at U.S. ports. The CDC said that frustrations with attempts to track the SARS outbreak prompted the
proposal, which is intended to allow the CDC to respond quickly
to signs of a new pandemic.
Federal Computer Week,
http://govhealthit.com/article91532-11-23-05-Web
BBC2 TO BROADCAST VIA BROADBAND
Controller Roly Keating intends to make BBC2 the first mainstream TV station to broadcast via broadband. A broadband service pilot is scheduled for 2006 to run concurrently with further
trials of MyBBCPlayer technology, which enables viewers to
download and watch BBC content on demand. The broadband
version of BBC2 reportedly will combine streamed media and
downloads. Silicon.com, http://networks.silicon.com/broadband/0,39024661,39154583,00.htm
MARINE RESEARCHERS TO USE NEW FIBER-OPTIC CONNECTION
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
Officials from research centers on opposite sides of the United
States announced a project that will link the two centers with
extremely fast connections, allowing researchers at each site
to collaborate with colleagues at the other as if they were in
the same location. The Community Cyberinfrastructure for
Advanced Marine Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis
(CAMERA) project, funded by a $24.5 million grant from the
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, will use the National
LambdaRail and other fiber-optic connections to link the J. Craig
Venter Institute, in Rockville, Md., with
the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at
the University of California at San Diego.
Larry L. Smarr, one of the project’s leaders, noted that many research programs
that involve disparate components are
limited by the connections between facilities. CAMERA will allow researchers at
the two locations to access and compare
vast amounts of data on marine microbes,
including genetic codes and data on water
conditions at locations around the globe.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 18 January
2006 (sub. req’d)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/01/
2006011801t.htm
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
UNDERTAKES DIGITIZATION PROJECT
In February, the Library of Congress
will begin transferring large collections
of vinyl records and video recordings
to a single location where they will be
archived and digitized. The library has
nearly 4 million separate items, currently stored in several
states, that will be moved to a facility in Virginia that had
been set up in the 1960s as a headquarters for government
officials in the event of a nuclear attack. The library’s holdings will be stored on 57 miles of shelves, and starting early
next year, the library will begin making digital copies of the
collection. Because many are covered by copyright, the digital
copies will not be available online. Researchers will be able
to request digital copies of specific recordings, however, and
library staff will pull the original and make a digital version.
Federal Computer Week, 13 January 2006 http://www.fcw.
com/article91968-01-13-06-Web AS ONLINE COURSES MULTIPLY, DISTINCTIONS BLUR
The number of online courses offered by colleges and universities continues to grow, as does the demand for online offerings,
leaving some administrators facing questions about practices
and policies. The South Dakota Board of Regents, for example,
found that 42 percent of students enrolled in online classes
were located on the campus that offered the course. Some
institutions with similar statistics have placed restrictions on
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who may enroll in online courses, believing they should primarily
serve distance students. Because components of online courses
are finding their way into traditional classes, including message
boards and chat rooms, some institutions suggest that the lines
between the two types of courses are sufficiently blurry that
future course catalogs might not indicate a difference. Marc Van
Horne, director of distance learning at Arizona State University,
said the school’s online offerings increasingly play a vital role in
the fulfillment of the university’s core mission.
CNN, 13 January 2006
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/01/13/oncampus.
online.ap/index.html
ONLINE BROKER
TO COVER FRAUD
LOSSES
Online stock broker
E*Trade has announced
a “zero liability” policy
in which it will cover
all losses resulting from
online fraud. Although
some other online brokerage firms said they
have absorbed some
or all of the costs of
fraud in past incidents,
E*Trade becomes the
first to establish such a policy. Losses due to fraud in the online
brokerage industry remain relatively small and are a fraction of
losses to credit card fraud, but the number of data breaches is
rising. Moreover, when people are victimized through brokerage fraud, they are harmed “to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars,” according to Gerri Walsh, acting director of
the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor
Education. Officials at E*Trade said they expect other brokers
will follow suit and implement similar policies, bringing the
entire industry to a level similar to that of credit card companies. A federal law passed in the 1970s requires issuers of credit
cards to limit customer liability to $50, but most issuers cover
all losses. New York Times, 18 January 2006 (registration req’d)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/technology/18data.html
CD player and all I get is weird noises. Listen.....
Tech support: Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!
===============
Tech support: What kind of computer do you have?
Female customer: A white one...
===============
Customer: Hi, this is Celine. I can’t get my diskette out.
Tech support: Have you tried pushing the button?
Customer: Yes, sure, it’s really stuck.
Tech support: That doesn’t sound good; I’ll make a note.
Customer: No . wait a minute... I hadn’t inserted it yet... it’s
still on my desk... sorry....
===============
Tech support: Click on the ‘my computer’ icon on the left of
the screen.
Customer: Your left or my left?
===============
Tech support: Good day. How may I help you?
Male customer: Hello... I can’t print.
Tech support: Would you click on “start” for me and...
Customer: Listen pal; don’t start getting technical on me! I’m
not Bill Gates, damn it!
===============
Customer: Hi, good afternoon, this is Martha, I can’t print.
Every time I try, it says ‘Can’t find printer’. I’ve even lifted the
printer and placed it in front of the monitor, but the computer
still says he can’t find it...
===============
Customer: I have problems printing in red...
Tech support: Do you have a color printer?
Customer: Aaaah....................thank you.
===============
COMPUTER HUMOR
Customer: I’m trying to connect to the Internet with your CD,
but it just doesn’t work. What am I doing wrong?
Tech support: OK, you’ve got the CD in the CD drive, right?
Customer: Yeah....
Tech support: And what sort of computer are you using?
Customer: Computer? Oh no, I haven’t got a computer. It’s in the
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
Tech support: What’s on your monitor now, ma’am?
Customer: A teddy bear! my boyfriend bought for me in the
supermarket.
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COMPUTER CARTOONS for March
Sonoma Valley Computer Group Newsletter
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Sonoma Valley Computer Group
POB 649
El Verano, CA 95433
Topic:
• eBay - How to Buy and Sell
• Q&A
Guest Speaker:
Kay Nagel
Date: Saturday, 3/11/2006
Place: Sonoma Public Library
755 West Napa Street
Time*: 10:00 am to 11:30 am
* Note time change-- Library now opens at
10am,
not 9:30am!!
for Mac and Windows Users