Latest Windows versions vulnerable to unusually serious hacker attacks Latest Windows versions vulnerable to unusually serious hacker attacks

TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer Thursday, December 20, 2001

(12-20) 10:44 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
Microsoft's newest version of Windows, billed as the most secure ever, contains several serious flaws that allow hackers to steal or destroy a victim's data files across the Internet or implant rogue computer software. The company released a free fix Thursday.
A Microsoft official acknowledged that the risk to consumers was unprecedented because the glitches allow hackers to seize control of all Windows XP operating system software without requiring a computer user to do anything except connect to the Internet.
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This is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE coming from a company with the size, experience and resources of Microsoft, but why am I NOT SURPRISED!!!

This Year Was the 2nd Hottest, Confirming a Trend, U.N. Says This Year Was the 2nd Hottest, Confirming a Trend, U.N. Says
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

GENEVA, Dec. 18 (AP) — The Earth's temperature in 2001 is expected to be the second highest in the 140 years that meteorologists have been keeping records, the United Nations weather agency said today.
"Temperatures are getting hotter, and they are getting hotter faster now than at any time in the past," said Michel Jarraud, deputy secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization.
Nine of the 10 warmest years since 1860 have occurred since 1990, the agency said, and temperatures are rising three times as fast as in the early 1900's.
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Hmmmm. Maybe the sky really is falling? I'm sure my right wing friends and their RapeEarth First policy will be quick to point out that these facts are somehow an aberration of reality.

Salon.com Technology | I am the broadband Bermuda Triangle I am the broadband Bermuda Triangle
Internet service providers beware: I have powers to invoke bankruptcy beyond the ken of mortal man.
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By Mike Masnick
Dec. 6, 2001 | I am the broadband Bermuda Triangle. Offer me a broadband connection, and your company is doomed to fail. If I even ask about your broadband service, start reading up on how to file for bankruptcy protection. Originally, I did not believe it was my fault, but after getting kicked off five different systems in the past 10 months, there is only one obvious factor in common: me.

Don't Clone The Vatican / Forget creating a super-race; let's just weed out uptight moral doctrine instead Perhaps we can move more toward a strain of the human animal that decidedly lacks the narrow thinking of, say, the GOP, of the religious Right, the soul-crushing doctrine of the Vatican and the more uptight and delimiting belief systems of the planet, Republican regression and Democratic whininess and overall sexual paranoia and guilt-laden dread, overcome those not-so-benign forces who would decide all the vagaries of life for you.
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The whole article is wonderful. There's even an inference that cloning might somehow fix the 'problem' with Trent Lott's hair!

Will 'It' Finally Be Revealed?

Remember "Ginger," the supposedly earth-shattering Mystery Thing that inventor Dean Kamen was rumored to have been working on earlier this year, back in happier times? Well, the enigmatic Ginger -- also called "It" -- will soon be unveiled ... maybe.

Last Monday, Diane Sawyer, host of ABC's Good Morning America, announced that her show will soon reveal the secret invention -- rumored to be a super-efficient personal scooter -- that tech heavies like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos said could possibly change the world.

Apple 'baffled' by proposed $1 billion Microsoft settlement Apple 'baffled' by proposed $1 billion Microsoft settlement

PAUL OWENS, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, November 27, 2001

(11-27) 11:19 PST BALTIMORE (AP) --
Apple Computer Inc. on Tuesday criticized Microsoft Corp.'s plan to settle its consumer class-action suits by donating refurbished computers, hardware and other resources to the nation's poorest schools.
"We're baffled that a settlement imposed against Microsoft for breaking the law should allow, even encourage, them to unfairly make inroads into education -- one of the few markets left where they don't have monopoly power," Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said in a statement.

Tail Section of Flight 587 Cracked Off, Investigators Say
Failure of Plane's 'Composite' Fittings Cited in American Crash

By Don Phillips and Michael Powell
Washington Post

NEW YORK, Nov. 14 -- The vertical tail section of American Airlines Flight 587 cracked off when its modern reinforced plastic "composite" fittings failed, investigators said today, and the National Transportation Safety Board announced that American will inspect the tail section of all its similar Airbus A300-600 widebody planes. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was dispatching its chief scientist to examine the composite materials as well.
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Why am I thinking that 'composite materials' and 'fittings' are handy euphemisms for Bondo and Superglue?

Sunny solution / Solar installation lets couple drop high power bill to zero Sunny solution
Solar installation lets couple drop high power bill to zero

Salon.com Technology | Earthlink, do you read me? Earthlink, do you read me?
Welcome to the 10th circle of hell: ISP tech support.
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By Peter Y. Sussman
Sept. 4, 2001 | What follows is an actual exchange of e-mail between me, a real person, and various people and/or machines at Internet service provider Earthlink, whose corporate family includes a number of other e-mail providers that it has gobbled up in recent years. One of the gobbled and only partially digested companies is Mindspring. The companies appear to have separate phone numbers and domain names, but they share some billing

[lf] Cyber Citizen lands Felony Charges? Cyber Citizen lands Felony Charges?

A good deed may lead to prosecution for Brian K. West, a 24 year old sales and support employee for an internet service provider in SE Oklahoma. Mr. West has become a statistic for the Computer Analysis Response Team because he alerted a local business to a serious security flaw in their website.
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Read this article and see if you can figure out what he did 'wrong'?

Rebels in Black Robes Recoil at Surveillance of Computers Rebels in Black Robes Recoil at Surveillance of Computers
By NEIL A. LEWIS
ASHINGTON, Aug. 7 — A group of federal employees who believed that the monitoring of their office computers was a major violation of their privacy recently staged an insurrection, disabling the software used to check on them and suggesting that the monitoring was illegal and unethical.
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We're not gonna take it anymore.

Personal Technology: Microsoft cracks down on sharing windows among home users UNDATED -- If you're one of the millions of consumers with multiple PCs in your household, and you plan on upgrading them to Microsoft's forthcoming Windows XP operating system, you're in for a rude surprise. For the first time, Microsoft plans to force families to buy a separate, full-price copy of Windows for each PC they upgrade. Each copy is expected to cost around $100.
Not only that, but the company's method for enforcing this rule, a system called "product activation," requires you to let Microsoft create and store a profile of the configuration of every PC on which you install Windows XP -- even if only a single machine is involved. This profile allows Microsoft to "lock" each copy of Windows XP to one specific PC.

The Robot With the Mind of an Eel (washingtonpost.com) The Robot With the Mind of an Eel
Scientists Start to Fuse Tissue and Technology in Machines
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Cyborg eels. The start of something big?

Gene-Spliced Wheat Stirs Global Fears (washingtonpost.com) Gene-Spliced Wheat Stirs Global Fears
Buyers Spurn Grain Before It's Planted
_____Special Reports_____

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 27, 2001; Page A01
Agricultural scientists have developed the first genetically engineered variety of wheat designed for sale to farmers, stirring intense controversy around the globe years before it is expected to come onto the market.
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Instead of focusing on making genetic crops more impervious to the dangerous and expensive chemicals Monsanto sells, why not just engineer in the resistance to disease/insects right from the get-go?
Monsanto better be careful or they're going to end up with a backlash that will make Chernobyl look like a summer camp fire.

The Key Vanishes: Scientist Outlines Unbreakable Code The Key Vanishes: Scientist Outlines Unbreakable Code
By GINA KOLATA

Rick Friedman for The New York Times
Dr. Michael Rabin, above, found a novel approach to code messages.
computer science professor at Harvard says he has found a way to send coded messages that cannot be deciphered, even by an all-powerful adversary with unlimited computing power. And, he says, he can prove it.

Erin Go Brockovich - Soderbergh should win, but not for Traffic.  by Franklin Foer Critics, of course, disagree. They can't get over the fact that Hollywood has financed a project as unconventional as Traffic, with its contrarian political message, handheld camera work, and nonlinear narrative. But Traffic's politics are hardly brash. The drug war is a slow-moving target that virtually no one defends. Handheld camera work might have been inventive in the late '80s, when Soderbergh used it in sex, lies, and videotape, but it's old news by now. And much of the film's dramatic tension is a result of sheer pace and volume. Watch it a second time, and the stories seem much more facile.

Secret Cameras Scanned Crowd at Super Bowl for Criminals Secret Cameras Scanned Crowd at Super Bowl for Criminals
Surveillance: Faces were cross-checked by new technology in bid to catch terrorists, other suspects. Privacy concerns are raised.

By LOUIS SAHAGUN and JOSH MEYER, Times Staff Writers

Unknown to the 100,000 people who passed through the turnstiles at Sunday's Super Bowl, hidden cameras scanned each of their faces and compared the portraits with photos of terrorists and known criminals of every stripe.

Salon.com Technology | Down and out in Redmond Down and out in Redmond
When Microsoft fell off the grid, its first reaction was to cover its butt.

Microsoft Says Attack Behind Web Site Outage Thursday January 25 7:38 PM ET
Microsoft Says Attack Behind Web Site Outage
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said hacker attacks had cut off access to some of its Web sites on Thursday as the software giant fell prey to the same kind of assault that took down other Internet giants last year.

Microsoft Says Attack Behind Web Site Outage Thursday January 25 7:38 PM ET
Microsoft Says Attack Behind Web Site Outage
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said hacker attacks had cut off access to some of its Web sites on Thursday as the software giant fell prey to the same kind of assault that took down other Internet giants last year.

Salon.com Technology | Technician blamed for Microsoft outages Technician blamed for Microsoft outages

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By Mia Penta
Jan. 25, 2001 | SEATTLE -- A Microsoft technician's error jammed company computer systems responsible for directing online traffic, resulting in hours of problems for people trying to access some of the software giant's Web sites.

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DealerSource: News Articles First Fruits if Zerox/Sharp/Fuji Xerox Alliance Arrive on Market
This article has been reprinted with the permission of Buyers Lab

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