Monday, March 3, 2003

Useit.Com: Persuasive Design: New Captology Book. After ten dark years of fighting (and partly conquering) user-hostile design without much theoretical progress in HCI, Dr. Fogg has now opened the field's next frontier with his work on "captology" -- computers as persuasive technologies. [Tomalak's Realm] 7:37:34 PM

Sendmail flaw tests Homeland Security. The newly minted Department of Homeland Security did a credible job of pushing for a fix to the Net's most popular e-mail server and keeping the issue quiet, say experts. [CNET News.com] 7:37:12 PM

Big Hole in E-Mail Transfer App. Sendmail, the most widely used program for transferring e-mail between computer networks, suffers from a security flaw that could allow attackers to intercept messages and disrupt delivery. [Wired News] 7:36:46 PM

Security Update 2003-03-03 [MacSlash: A daily dose of Macintosh News and Discussion] 7:36:34 PM

Beaming Video at Speed of Light. A New Zealand company's twist on free-space optics -- which broadcasts data over visible light spectrum -- promises to make wireless data transfer faster and cheaper. It can even beam high-quality video. Kim Griggs reports from Hamilton, New Zealand. [Wired News] 10:15:34 AM

Thai drug war claims over 1,100 in a month. Think Americans have got it bad because they can't buy bongs anymore? Then try Thailand, where more than 1,100 Thais have been killed -- most of them shot dead, execution-style -- this past February as a result of Thailand's new "zero tolerance" policy. [kuro5hin.org] 10:15:15 AM

Diplomat Kiesling to Secretary Powell: Dear Mr. Secretary.... John Brady Kiesling, a distinguished career foreign service officer, resigned his post as political counselor at the American embassy in Athens last week to protest President Bush's foreign policy, as reported by Reuters. As a career diplomat, he has served in United States embassies from Tel Aviv to Casablanca to Yerevan. Following is the full body of his resignation letter, perhaps the most elegant statement of dissent over the Republican administration's foreign policy to date: Dear Mr. Secretary... [kuro5hin.org] 10:14:37 AM

Apple releases AppleScripts for Sony Ericsson Clicker [MacCentral] 10:13:57 AM