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Ars Technica
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| 1. |
2004 Comdex trade show cancelled. MediaLive International today announced the cancellation of this year's Comdex trade show. Slated to return in 2005, the show has been hit hard by the growth of the CES and by major vendors choosing not to exhibit. By Eric Bangeman. |
| 2. |
Flight problems may delay SpaceShipOne's X Prize attempt. Flight control problems during SpaceShipOne's historic space flight on Monday will ground the craft until they are diagnosed and fixed. If this leads to an extended delay, it could cost them thier shot at the Ansari X Prize. By Fred "zAmboni" Locklear. |
| 3. |
Yet more fuel cell news. MTI Micro announces a fuel cell advance which provides power and size rivaling Li-ion batteries. Also, research into glucose based fuel cells could provide power on the cheap from Matrix inspired sources. By Fred "zAmboni" Locklear. |
| 4. |
SBC says "me too" to fiber. SBC announces a planned US$4 to $6 billion investment in optical fiber network upgrades. Many critics believe it is the same old song & dance and will believe it when they see it. By Fred "zAmboni" Locklear. |
| 5. |
AOL employee pulled an inside job to aid spammers. An AOL programmer was arrested today and charged with stealing some 92 million (!) AOL screen names from the company database and selling that list to a spammer. By Ken "Caesar" Fisher. |
| 6. |
SETI@Home (finally) begins transitioning to BOINC. SETI@Home begins their transition to the BOINC client and infrastructure. Congrats to Team Lamb Chop members for their efforts in the "classic" portion of the project and we look forward to your contribution using the new BOINC client. By Fred "zAmboni" Locklear. |
| 7. |
Hotmail boosts e-mail storage limit to 250MB. Responding to the thread of defections to Gmail and Yahoo's increase in e-mail storage, Hotmail has increased the storage limit for subscribers to its free e-mail service. By Eric Bangeman. |
| 8. |
Microsoft developing High Performance version of Windows. Microsoft's "Data Center" version of Windows Server 2003 is aimed at high performance servers that run up to 64 processors on a single "system," but now Microsoft is turning its attention to parallel computing. By Ken "Caesar" Fisher. |
| 9. |
Anti-Spyware bill moves forward despite doubts. The anti-spyware bill we reported on last week dubbed the Safeguard Against Privacy Invasions Act (Spy Act, for short) has picked up steam, clearing the committee in the House this morning with a 45-4 vote. By Ken "Caesar" Fisher. |
| 10. |
IIS, IE exploit unleashed. A possible "zero-day" IIS exploit combined with a vulnerability in IE6 is resulting in PCs which visit compromised sites being infected with malware. The code consists of JavaScript appended to image files downloaded from compromised IIS servers. By Eric Bangeman. |
| 11. |
Intel's new chipsets flawed, recall coming. A fabrication problem in one of Intel's plants has been identified as the cause of a flaw in some of Intel's new 915 and 925 chipsets. Launched just this week, the 915 and 925 (aka, Grantsdale) chipsets are part of Intel's PCI Express rollout. By Ken "Caesar" Fisher. |
| 12. |
Downtown Spokane gets WiFi. At a cost of less than US$75,000, the city of Spokane, Washington has installed a WiFi network covering 100 blocks. Will other cities begin creating networks like this? By Eric Bangeman. |
| 13. |
Et Cetera: dressed to circle. Round up, including: The Xbox 2 specs we reported Wednesday are "no hoax" according to developers who spoke to The Register. By Ken "Caesar" Fisher. |
| 14. |
New WiFi standard aimed at security is ratified. The WiFi soup just got another friend: 802.11i. The new standard was ratified yesterday by the IEEE standards committee, and it brings stronger encryption and better security protocols to the table in an aim to replace the de facto security protocol. By Ken "Caesar" Fisher. |
| 15. |
Microsoft appeals European Commission Windows Media Player unbundling ruling. Microsoft has filed an appeal with the European Union Court of First Instance over the EC's ruling that they must unbundle Windows Media Player from Windows itself. By Eric Bangeman. |
| 16. |
Fahrenheit 9/11: will you go see it this summer?. Michael Moore's new film Fahrenheit 9/11 opens this weekend in the US. Is it on your summer moviegoing list? By Ken "Caesar" Fisher. |
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Boing Boing
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| 17. |
DRM'ed Constitution: more primitive than the original. This DRM'ed ebook version of the US Constitution costs $3, and can only be printed twice per year. As John notes, "It would only take 7 years to get copies out to the 13 colonies. Even with the primitive means the colonists had, it only took a few months to distribute the constitution."
X-NAS-Bayes: #0: 0; #1: 1
X-NAS-Classification: 0
X-NAS-MessageID: 2242
X-NAS-Validation: {E681C936-E9F0-4DDC-9901-74301AF33E67}
Link
(Thanks, John!) |
| 18. |
MP candidates on the "Canadian DMCA". With the Canadian election coming up in four days, Ray called up all the candidates in his riding and asked them what they thought of the Canadian version of the DMCA:
What I believe needs to happen is the creation of a new "industry model", one that understands that all music, programs, books, etc, will be distributed over the internet. What this means is that a huge infrastructure of advertisors, retailers, wholesalers, etc, are going to wither away and have to find new ways of making a living. Instead, modern technology will allow consumers and artists to interact directly. Until industry realizes that this is the new "rules of the game", they will be in the situation of King Canut trying to order the tide to not come in. Part of this realization will be the understanding that consumers simply will not pay the same price for a book, music, etc, that they download and print themselves off the internet that they would have to pay if they went to a physical store and made a purchase. And why should they? They have removed almost all the "middle-men" who previously had to do work to get it into their hands.
Link
(Thanks, Ray!) |
| 19. |
Ernest Miller savages Orrin Hatch's grotesque new law. Ernest Miller has posted a line-by-line, "obsessively detailed" critique of Orrin Hatch's introduction to the dumbfuck, nation-destroying new INDUCE Act, which makes it a crime to "induce infringement."
Such beliefs seem common among distributors of so-called peer-to-peer filesharing (“P2P”) software. ["So-called," indeed. Hatch isn't about define what P2P software is because it would end up including things like e-mail, IM, VoIP, HTTP and plenty of other internet protocols. P2P is how much of the internet works.] These programs are used mostly by children and college students – about half of their users are children. [You can say the same things about videogames, as well as other popular technologies like IM and SMS. It is frequently the case that the younger generation adopts new technologies sooner than older users.] Users of these programs routinely violate criminal laws relating to copyright infringement and pornography distribution. [You can say the same thing about plenty of internet protocols, such as HTTP, FTP, SMTP, and so on.] Criminal law defines “inducement” as “that which leads or tempts to the commission of crime.” [Luckily, not every temptation is a crime or there would be more people in jail than free.] Some P2P software appears to be the definition of criminal inducement captured in computer code. [Software is a tool. This is the same as saying that bolt-cutters and crowbars are inducements to burglary.]
Link
(Thanks, Ernest!) |
| 20. |
Presidential candidate ringtones. If your phone supports MP3s or WAVs as ringtones, you can download these clips of the three presedential candidates saying "I'm John Kerry and I approve this message," "I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message" and "I'm Ralph Nader, running for president and I approve this mess."
Link
(Thanks, PT!) |
| 21. |
Schneier: More police power = less security. Bruce Schneier's just published a fantastic editorial about how expanded police powers make us less secure:
The United States is admired throughout the world because of our freedoms and our liberties. The very rights that are being discussed within the halls of the Supreme Court are the rights that keep us all safe and secure. The more our fight against terrorism is conducted within the confines of law, the more it gives consideration to the principles of fair and open trial, due process and "innocent until proven guilty," the safer we all are.
Unchecked police and military power is a security threat -- just as important a threat as unchecked terrorism. There is no reason to sacrifice the former to obtain the latter, and there are very good reasons not to.
Link
(Thanks, Bruce!) |
| 22. |
Lawsuits against White House stonewallers. The Associated Press wonders why it had to resort to filing suits against the Pentagon and Air Force in order to obtain President Bush's military service records, especially since the White House says they've already turned them over.
AP General Counsel Dave Tomlin, told E&P [Editor & Publisher] the lawsuit is needed to get access to a portion of Bush's record that may offer more information than the paper files previously released. "The paper file may not be everything," he said. "It has been there a long while, it could conceivably be tampered with." Because the microfilm record has been in storage and "it can't be altered, that access to the microfilm would settle the matter," Tomlin added.
Link
Meanwhile, a watchdog group called Project on Government Oversight is suing Attorney General John Ashcroft for reclassifying certain documents pertaining to a translator who says she was bribed not to disclose information about a 9/11 coverup. (Reported previously in Boing Boing here and here)
Link
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| 23. |
Best actual adult film title ever. Bodyslamming Anal Chiropractors out of the #1 spot in my list of all-time worst/best porn movie titles ever, this new gem: Crack Whores of the Tenderloin. Another fine title from the same filmmakers, Bongwater Butt Babes, is described on the production company's website as "a poignant relationship study in the spirit of Godard."Link (via Fleshbot). More fun: a list of 100 ridiculous titles here. |
| 24. |
Photoblogging 24 hours of music around the globe. Boing Boing pal Jean-Luc says,
For this year's "Music Day" (June 21, 2004), the French "Fete de la Musique" organization created a worldwide beautiful photoblog about what happens in music during this day on five continents. There are pics from Afghanistan, Zambia, Sudan, Bolivia and all around the world."
Link to "June 21: Like We Were There." |
| 25. |
Scriptable, Internet-controlled sex toys. I filed this story for Wired News today about one of the more interesting gadget demonstrations at this weekend's Erotica LA porn industry convention: remote-control, "scriptable" sex toys. Adult entertainment providers will soon sell celebrity-branded "scripts" for the devices (think: Jenna Jameson, Tera Patrick, Ron Jeremy, and the like), which work like mobile phone ringtones but -- well-- then again, kinda different.
Using a two-way video, audio and text chat interface, expo attendees were invited to control Doc Johnson-branded iVibe pleasure devices being put to use by models at an undisclosed location, in various states of undress.
"The device control works both ways -- the person on each end controls the speed and rhythm of the device the other is using," explained High Joy President Amir Vatan, as one attendee cranked his remote partner's iVibe to warp-speed intensity. The Internet-enabled products will become publicly available before the end of 2004, and will later be integrated into an assortment of Web porn destinations.
"It's the ultimate in site stickiness," said Vatan. "For online adult providers, more interactivity means more traffic, and more traffic means more revenue."
Link |
| 26. |
Xeni's MMS primer. On MSNBC, a quick primer I wrote on the (as-yet-unfulfilled) promise of MMS. Link |
| 27. |
NDP supports bad Internet treaties. This is painful. I've been a New Democratic Party supporter all my life, and was proud to cast my absentee ballot for Olivia Chow in this year's Canadian Federal election -- and would love to see Jack Layton in the PM's seat.
That said, the NDP's tech policies are rotten. For one thing, they support WIPO's punishing Internet treaties. I hope that this is a matter of ignorance and not a well-thought-out, stable policy. I'd be happy to talk to any NDP policy person about these treaties, and why they're so poisonous to liberty.
The NDP endorsed the Committee's recommendations on swift ratification of the controversial WIPO Internet treaties, and even more surprisingly, it gave its approval to an extended licensing scheme for educational materials, despite the heated opposition from the education community.
FWIW, I think extended licensing -- where all material is considered to be covered under a blanket license once a certain minimum of rights-holders have opted in -- is a great idea. It keeps holdouts from stalling blanket license regimes that simplify re-use and distribution.
Link
(Thanks, Tim!) |
| 28. |
Antenna Design's Black Magician. I have a new article online at TheFeature.com about a 60-year-old ham radio head who may have revolutionized antenna design:
Rob Vincent couldn't let anything interfere with love, even interference itself. In 1995, the ham radio buff moved in to his girlfriend's small Rhode Island house to live happily ever after. But there was a hitch. Her small piece of property wasn't big enough for Vincent, his significant other, and the 140-foot antenna he needed to reach his wireless buddies around the world.
Dedicated to both his future wife and his hobby, Vincent spent nearly a decade designing the antenna now standing in his backyard. The 40-foot-high pole bests conventional antennas three times taller. This week, the inventor and his employer, the University of Rhode Island, are filing a patent on the technology...
"The people saying that I'm a snake oil salesman... will have to order a great big plate of crow very soon," Vincent says.
Link
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| 29. |
Kerry's science and technology plan. Boing Boing pal Tom Kalil, former President Clinton's "point person" on science and technology, suggests we take a close look at John Kerry's just-announced sci/tech plan to accelerate innovation. Worth noting in the plan, Kalil says, are promises of "increased funding for research in bio, info and nanotechnology, and more spectrum for unlicensed uses and 'cognitive' radio."
From the document:"George Bush has failed to lead on science, technology, and innovation. He has politicized or ignored scientific and technical advice. His budget plan cuts almost every area of research that is critical to our future economic growth. And during his tenure, America’s position as a leader in broadband Internet technology has eroded from 4th in the world to 10th in the world.
John Kerry’s plan will be paid for by accelerating the transition to digital television while ensuring that Americans continue to enjoy free, over-the-air television. This will provide wireless broadband for first responders, expand the spectrum that is available for unlicensed wireless broadband and also free up $30 billion of spectrum for public auction – paying for his investments in innovation."
Link to press release. Link to PDF of the plan. |
| 30. |
Orrin Hatch criminalizes the iPod. With Orrin Hatch's nation-destroying Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act headed for law, EFF has decided to create a real example of just what kind of "piracy" Hatch is targetting. Here's EFF's hypothetical complaint against Apple (for making the iPod) C|Net (for reviewing the iPod), and Toshiba (for supplying hard drives for iPods). All three of these activities fall within the scope of activity that Hatch's bill seeks to end:
As detailed further in Professor Expert’s report, the iPod would have been much less attractive to consumers had it been incompatible with the music files downloaded from P2P networks and had it not allowed consumer-to-consumer transfers. Professor Expert’s report also makes it clear that the iPod, in turn, enhanced the attractiveness of P2P networks by offering iPod owners expansive storage capability and lightning-fast data transfer, allowing them to listen to any number of infringing music files when away from the computer.
Surveys conducted by Professor Expert establish that a majority of iPod owners have used at least some significant portion of their iPods to store and play infringing music files, whether derived from P2P networks or promiscuous hand-to-hand copying. Upon information and belief, Apple was certainly aware of this fact from its own internal marketing research.
Link
(Thanks, Jason (and good work!)) |
| 31. |
Bizzare Spider-Man comic strip remixes.  Link, click reload for a new one (about 20 total, some dumb and some sublime) (via Warren)update: BB reader Eric Smith says, "I believe they are the remix work of Jay Pinkerton. His blog is fantastic (he writes for National Lampoon and other comedy outlets) - I highly recommend reading everything he has ever written. (the Ikea desk, the bad assss song, etc). He has done many other comic "things" over time - although I couldn't find any other Spiderman specific things on his site via Google. I suppose it is possible that he got them elsewhere, but I would say that they sound entirely like his sense of humor (and the fact that he does other comics as well makes me think that he is the source of these). |
| 32. |
Death metal band with parrot as lead singer -- Hatebeak. 
The new album by HATEBEAK -- the world's only deathmetal band with an avian vocalist -- promises music so terrifying it will "make you vacate your bowels." Song titles inlcude Beak of Putrefaction and God of Empty Nest. "Hatebeak pecks your eyes out and assaults your ears in a flurry of pummeling riffs and grey feathers that leaves you lying in a pool of blood begging for more." Buy a clear vinyl 7" for $5 postage paid at this Link.
(Thanks, Mara!)
Update: BoingBoing reader Justin reminds us that Judas Priest and/or Sony Music may not appreciate HATEBEAK's creative reappropriation of this album cover. Loukas points us to the fact that the band's logo was lifted from an album cover that blogger and SENT co-curator Sean Bonner designed for a Connecticut-based band named Hatebreed in which all members are human. And reader Jason gill says, "Don't forget this grindcore band who's lead vocalists are two pitbulls to go with your parrot metal!".
Update 2: BoingBoing reader Will says, "Naming the album 'Beak of Putrefaction' is probably also a nod to the grindcore band Carcass and their first album called 'Reek of Putrefaction."
Keep your beak glued to BoingBoing for an upcoming exclusive MP3 and interview with Waldo, the feathered frontman of HATEBEAK. |
| 33. |
Monty Python Black Knight model rocket.  Stefan sez: "Xtreeem rocket nerd Bob Fortune builds a flying model of the luckless, limbless Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Link
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| 34. |
P2P hits without radio airplay. Here's a chart of musicians getting significant "airplay" on the P2P nets, even though they're being ignored by the world's radio stations.
Link
(via Waxy) |
| 35. |
ESC-key creator dies. Bob Bemer, inventor of the escape key and co-inventor of ASCII has died of cancer at 84.
Link
(Thanks, Jeremy!) |
| 36. |
Star Wars/Office Space mashup. 
Office Space Wars is one of the funniest amateur video projects I've ever seen: it's a remake of Office Space, set in the Star Wars Universe, with Vader as the bad boss, Jar Jar as the stapler guy, and R2D2 as the bad printer.
Update: Erin, who was hosting this file, has been shut down by her lame-ass generous ISP (the ironically aptly named tera-byte.com). If you have a link to a more stable version of this movie (the filename is OfficeSpaceWars.wmv) mail it to me and I'll update the post
Update #2:Tera-byte was saving Erin from a huge-mongoose bandwidth bill, and one of their techs has posted the file on his personal site: 30MB WMV Link
(Thanks, Emil, for hosting this!)
Update #3: For some reason, someone moved this link to point to the Michael Moore F-911 trailer in the middle of the night. Hardy har har. Anyway, it now appears to be pointing back to a mirror of the Office Space Wars short. Who knows if it'll last. Here's a mirror that Ari put up; here's another mirror, courtesy of Tian.
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| 37. |
Alice in Wonderland pop-up book as a Flash app. 
Here's a BRILLIANT Flash adaptation of J. Otto Seibold's magnificent Alice in Wonderland Pop-Up Book.
872k Flash Link
(Thanks, Roboto!)
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| 38. |
Reality TV Gilligan's Island. Boing Boing reader Zed says, "Someone's making a 'The Real Gilligan's Island,' a Gilligan's Island Reality TV show, promising 'situations drawn from the original series.'" Link |
| 39. |
Fun world statistics comparison site. A BB reader sez: "This is the world's biggest database for comparing statistics between countries. Sounds boring, sure- but check out the 'Mortality' stats. They've got World Health Organization stats on how people die all over the world - e.g. Austria has the highest per-capita rate of deaths resulting from "Falls involving ice-skates, skis, roller-skates or skateboards". Heaps of Japanese die of 'drowning and submersion in bath tub". Check out "struck by reptile". Amazing." Link
A BB reader sez: This crashes firefox and mozilla browsers. PLEASE warn your users before clicking.
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| 40. |
Simians, Cyborgs, and Gareth Branwyn. In 2000, longtime bOING bOING editor Gareth Branwyn underwent total hip replacement to help relieve the pain of severe degenerative arthritis. A quintessential happy mutant, Gar wrote a smart, funny, and poignant deconstruction of his reconstruction, accompanied by "get well" illustrations by designer Jim Leftwich.
 "During the initial visit with my orthopedic surgeon, he brought in an implant for me to play with. It was a gorgeous, awe-inspiring piece of modern machinery - almost Zen-like in its shining simplicity and austere precision. The cementless implant technology my doctor's clinic uses was co-developed by them and has been implanted into thousands of patients. The description of the implant reads like something from a William Gibson novel. I now sport a Duroloc(r) 100 acetabular titanium cup with sintered titanium beads for in-bone growth adhesion. I have a bleeding-edge Marathon(r) polyethylene liner with irradiated cross-linked polymers for tighter bonding and longer wear rates. My Prodigy(r) brand stem has a 28mm cobalt-chrome head and a cobalt-chrome femoral component with sintered cobalt-chrome beading for bone in-growth fixation. Where 2001's HAL 9000 was fond of telling people that he was made at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois, I can now boast that part of me was manufactured by DePuy Industries of Warsaw, Indiana."
Just yesterday, Gar updated "Borg Like Me" with recent post-upgrade reflections. "Do cyborgs dream of bionic upgrades?" he asks. "Yes they do!" Link
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| 41. |
Mr. Vice President has a potty mouth. As Jess Hemerly writes on A Great Notion , "There's something about the way this Washington Post article is written that makes the entire scenario 3,000 times funnier." From the article:
"On Tuesday, Cheney, serving in his role as president of the Senate, appeared in the chamber for a photo session. A chance meeting with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, became an argument about Cheney's ties to Halliburton Co., an international energy services corporation, and President Bush's judicial nominees. The exchange ended when Cheney offered some crass advice.
'Fuck yourself,' said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency."
..Even if the Senate were in session, the vice president, though constitutionally the president of the Senate, is an executive branch official and therefore free to use whatever language he likes."
Link to Washington Post article (free reg. required) |
| 42. |
Sound wave refrigerator.  Ice cream tycoons Ben and Jerry gave Penn State $600,000 to develop a refrigerator that uses sound waves instead of freon to keep food cool. The mad-scientist outsider-art design is excellent.Link |
| 43. |
Senate approves PIRATE act. Today, the U.S. Senate approved a proposal that will give federal prosecutors the power to file civil lawsuits against suspected copyright infringers -- penalties include fines up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The so-called Pirate Act has raised alarms among copyright lawyers and lobbyists for peer-to-peer companies, who have been eyeing the recording industry's lawsuits against thousands of peer-to-peer users with trepidation. They worry that the Department of Justice could be even more ambitious.
Senate leaders scheduled Friday's vote under a procedure that required the unanimous consent of all members present. Now the Pirate Act, along with a related bill that criminalizes using camcorders in movie theaters, will be forwarded to the House of Representatives for approval.
Link to Declan McCullagh's story on News.com. |
| 44. |
Hinterland Who's Who: short nature films from my childhood. 
"Hinterland Who's Who" was a series of 1960s-era short nature films that used to air as interstitial material on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation when I was a kid, maddeningly interrupting the cartoons. There was a very funny sendup of these on an old SCTV episode, but other than that, I haven't seen these since I was a small child. Until today. Now they're all on the Web. Now, the Internet is complete.
Link
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| 45. |
FastCompany's terrible linking policy. FastCompany -- the tech magazine for the new economy -- has a spectacularily clueless policy on linking, in which they expect people who want to link to their site to fax a permission form to their legal department! Imagine if this were enforceable: the Web that Fast Company has built its business upon would crumble into a billion individuated and unlinked pages.
Due to the large volume of requests we receive, we do not have a reciprocal linking program. However, if you like, you may link to us at no cost. This option requires the execution by you and Fastcompany.com of a one-page Web-linking agreement. Please download and sign the agreement and fax it to 617-738-5055, attn: G+J legal, Fastcompany.com. As soon as you receive back the agreement signed on behalf of Fastcompany.com, you may begin linking to our content.
Here's some of the spectacularily clueless "linking agreement" Fast Company thinks it can force linkers to sign off on:
For good and valuable consideration, effective upon the duly authorized signatures of Owner and G+J below (the "Effective Date"), G+J hereby grants to Owner a non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to create a hyperlink from the Linking Site to Inc.com from the Effective Date, unless and until such permission is terminated by G+J upon notice to Owner, subject to the following terms and conditions.
Owner hereby represents and warrants that: (i) any content displayed on the Linking Site shall not infringe upon or misappropriate any third party intellectual property or other proprietary rights, shall not invade any third party rights of privacy or publicity, shall be free from any libelous or obscene material, shall be accurate, and shall not otherwise violate any applicable law, regulation or non-proprietary third party right; (ii) the Linking Site does not and will not contain any harmful software code or viruses; (iii) Owner has duly registered the domain name of the Linking Site with all applicable authorities and possesses all rights necessary to use such domain name; and (iv) Owner shall use its best efforts, including any and all then-available technology, to prevent Internet users from downloading any content from Inc.com.
There are a lot of stupid organizations that have policies like this, but very few of them have the close relationship to the Web that FC has. The disturbing thing here is that FC's credibity as an authority on the Web lends credence to this bizarre and damaging idea of needing permission to link.
Link
(Thanks, Jordon!) |
| 46. |
Kim Jong Il's fanatical food fetish. Todays' LA Times has a great story about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's obsession with expensive, exotic food. He sends trusted aides all over the world to buy morsels of gourmet food and eats sashimi carved from live fish, while his subjects dig in the dirt with sticks looking for bugs to eat.
Kim insists that his rice be cooked over a wood fire using trees cut from Mt. Paektu, a legendary peak on the Chinese border, according to a memoir written by a nephew of Kim's first wife. He has his own private source of spring water. Female workers inspect each grain of rice to ensure that they meet the leader's standards. (The nephew, Lee Young Nam, who defected to South Korea in the 1980s, was assassinated by suspected North Korean agents in Seoul in 1997.)
Kim's refined palate is not merely a matter of idle gossip, but the subject of serious study by political psychologists trying to understand the North Korean leadership.
Jerrold M. Post, a psychiatrist who founded and was the longtime director of the CIA's Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior, says Kim's obsession with eating the best food comes from being the son of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, revered by the propaganda machine as a god-like figure. Post diagnosed the younger Kim as a malign narcissist in large part based on information about his eating habits.
"This is how you prepare food and water for a god."
The former South Korean Ambassador says this is a good thing: "Kim Jong Il loves life. He is a drinker, a womanizer, a gourmet. To start a war requires an ascetic like Hitler who doesn't care if he lives or dies. But I can't see Kim starting a war that he will surely lose." Link |
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Dilbert
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| 47. |
Dilbert for 23 Jun 2004.  |
| 48. |
Dilbert for 24 Jun 2004.  |
| 49. |
Dilbert for 25 Jun 2004.  |
| 50. |
Dilbert for 26 Jun 2004.  |
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Penny Arcade!
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| 51. |
Hot Future Girl Can Stay.  |
| 52. |
Good Luck.  |
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BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
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| 53. |
Spider-Man game sequel on form. Activision has been listening to criticism of the original for their second web-slinging game, Spider-Man 2. |
| 54. |
Virtual cash con causes real pain. Catch up with the latest news from the world of video gaming. |
| 55. |
Microsoft 'mulled Peoplesoft bid'. The software giant considered a stake in business software firm Peoplesoft to forestall a bid by its rival Oracle, an email from Bill Gates shows. |
| 56. |
Net pioneer predicts web future. The man behind the ".com" and ".uk" system predicts the disappearance of phone numbers. |
| 57. |
Biggest computer fair cancelled. Comdex, once the biggest event in the technology calendar, is cancelled after falling attendance. |
| 58. |
Indian rail 'to offer net access'. Indian Railways will offer internet access to passengers from the end of the month, a press report says. |
| 59. |
Concern over net phone fraud. UK police are investigating complaints about net diallers which call premium rate numbers without permission. |
| 60. |
Norwegians try out TV on mobiles. Watching the TV on a mobile phone screen is proving popular among people in Norway. |
| 61. |
Hotmail counters Google e-mail. The battle for e-mail subscribers hots up, with Microsoft upping the amount of storage for Hotmail users. |
| 62. |
Toshiba develops tiny fuel cell. A tiny prototype fuel cell that could power future music players has been developed by Toshiba. |
| 63. |
AOL buys internet advertiser. Net services provider AOL buys an online marketing firm for £435m. |
| 64. |
Martial arts lands wireless blow. The popular sport of Tae Kwon Do is being brought into the 21st century using wireless technology. |
| 65. |
Key computer coding creator dies. The man behind one of the most widely used conventions in computing has died. |
| 66. |
Paying for virtual action. The heroes of the world of video games have to work hard to earn a virtual living. |
| 67. |
IE browser flaw prompts warning. Users of Internet Explorer are being urged to be vigilant to avoid infection by a malicious computer code. |
| 68. |
Texting lights up Glasto's tents. Bewildered festival-goers at Glastonbury 2004 have had a helping hand finding their way "home" with a tent that lights up by text message. |
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CNET News.com
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| 69. |
PeopleSoft, Oracle talked merger in detail. Oracle president says the companies were thinking of combining before the hostile takeover attempt was launched. |
| 70. |
Oracle v. DOJ: Firms discussed merger in detail. special coverage Oracle's president testifies PeopleSoft executives suggested and discussed a merger before the hostile bid. |
| 71. |
Verizon recalls cell phone batteries. The batteries, some of which may be fake, have caused minor fires and injuries. |
| 72. |
Briefly: Start-up catalyses $3 million. roundup Plus: Motive fails to fly in IPO...PayPal gives credit...Proposed spyware bill seeks penalties. |
| 73. |
HP gets behind the desktop. The computer giant fleshes out its "Adaptive Enterprise" push with the release of desktop PC software and hardware. |
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Yahoo! News - Technology
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| 74. |
ITunes launch rocks Europe (USATODAY.com). USATODAY.com - Apple Computer said Wednesday that the European version of its iTunes music downloading service sold 800,000 songs during its first week, which could make it the No. 1 music service there. |
| 75. |
Oracle president: Merger good for all (SiliconValley.com). SiliconValley.com - The chief architect of Oracle's $7.7 billion hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft testified that the deal would be good for business and good for customers. |
| 76. |
Insider Case At AOL Shows Vulnerability (washingtonpost.com). washingtonpost.com - For the public, it was jaw-dropping: an America Online software engineer accused of entering his company's data banks and stealing 92 million e-mail addresses that allegedly were sold by a middleman to spammers. |
| 77. |
Free Agent: Freedom Is Coming to a Windows Box Near You (PC World). PC World - Who said that Free Software is just for Linux users? |
| 78. |
Momentum For WiMAX Building (TechWeb). TechWeb - Industry gets ready to roll out wireless data networking's next killer platform. |
| 79. |
PC Users Warned of Infected Web Sites (washingtonpost.com). washingtonpost.com - Computer security experts and the federal government are warning Internet users to take extra precautions when browsing the Web after an Internet attack seeded Web sites with programs that hackers can use to steal personal information. |
| 80. |
Music sellers build fan base using file-sharing services (SiliconValley.com). SiliconValley.com - On any given day, popular movies such as "Harry Potter" and "Around the World in 80 Days" are illegally traded over Internet file-sharing services like so many baseball cards. |
| 81. |
Spreading Web Virus Aims to Steal Financial Data (Reuters). Reuters - A potentially dangerous Internet
attack on personal computers by a virus designed to steal
financial data and passwords from Web users rippled across the
Internet on Friday, computer security experts said. |
| 82. |
Senate Passes Toughened Copyright Laws (Reuters). Reuters - The U.S. Senate passed two bills on
Friday that would carve out a larger role for law enforcers in
the entertainment industry's struggle to limit unauthorized
copying of its movies and music. |
| 83. |
Microsoft Asks Court to Suspend EU Sanctions (Reuters). Reuters - Microsoft Corp asked a European court
on Friday to suspend the European Commission's decision that
orders the software giant to change the way it sells Windows
software, according to sources familiar with the situation. |
| 84. |
Hewlett-Packard, Intel Address Chip Flaws (Reuters). Reuters - Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ.N) on
Friday said it had discovered a flaw in the design of some
memory chips used in Compaq and HP notebook computers and would
replace the components for about 900,000 of the laptops. |
| 85. |
Patriotic PC Maker Plays on U.S. Outsourcing Anger (Reuters). Reuters - An small Idaho-based PC maker has
turned the public backlash against outsourcing U.S. jobs into
an unusual marketing campaign, urging customers to "Buy MPC,
Support America." |
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Slashdot
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|
| 86. |
Build Your Own FreeBSD-powered Motorcycle |
| 87. |
Should Colleges Monitor Students' PCs? |
| 88. |
Field Day 2004 |
| 89. |
SpamAssassin Gets a Promotion |
| 90. |
Senate Unanimously Passes Anti-Camcorder Bill |
| 91. |
Industrial Design Excellence Awards 2004 |
| 92. |
Intel Recalls New Chipset-Based Motherboards |
| 93. |
NASA Abandons SimCIty Microwave Power Concept |
| 94. |
Arctic Ocean Survey May Reveal Lost World |
| 95. |
Court Blocks FCC Media Ownership Rules |
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InfoWorld: Top News
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|
| 96. |
MS issues warning on Web attacks, pushes XP SP2 beta. Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Thursday that Internet Information Server (IIS), a component of the Windows 2000 Server, and holes in the Internet Explorer Web browser are being used in widespread attacks that are compromising Web pages and using them as launching pads for malicious computer code. |
| 97. |
US, Europe ready to sign satellite accord. LONDON - The European Union (E.U.) is set to sign an agreement with the U.S. on Saturday that could make the sky the limit on satellite technology, allowing Europe to push ahead with its Galileo satellite program. |
| 98. |
Oracle asks judge to dismiss DOJ's case. Oracle Corp. on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss the U.S. government's lawsuit to block its proposed takeover of PeopleSoft Inc., arguing the government did not prove the $7.7 billion merger would be anticompetitive. |
| 99. |
HP says it has found industry-wide notebook memory flaw. Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) plans to let notebook customers swap out certain memory modules that HP says are compromised by a recently discovered design flaw, the company said Friday. |
| 100. |
Experts agree on method, not scope of IIS attacks. BOSTON - One day after reports of Web site attacks surfaced, there was disagreement about how widespread the attacks were and how many Internet users were affected by them. |
| 101. |
U.S. Senate approves antipiracy bill. WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate has passed a bill allowing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in addition to copyright holders, to file civil lawsuits against alleged copyright pirates, over the objections of peer-to-peer (P-to-P) software vendors. ADVERTISEMENT  Download Strategic Value of Moving to Linux Business White Paper
Find out how your company can reduce IT costs or improve efficiency, you are probably considering Linux and what role it will play in your company.
|
| 102. |
Red Hat releases Sistina software under GPL. SAN FRANCISCO - Five months after completing its $31 million acquisition of Sistina Software Inc., Red Hat Inc. released the source code for all of Sistina's proprietary software on Thursday, including its Global File System, under an open source license. |
| 103. |
To win at offshoring: Start slow, be deliberate. As do many IT executives who have outsourced applications development work, Jonathan Sapir, president of InfoPower Systems, stumbled at first. |
| 104. |
The art of successful offshore outsourcing. Even IT executives who have successfully outsourced parts of their companies' services abroad can tell you the road to profitable relations with offshore partners can be painfully bumpy. Just ask Group 1 Software Vice President of Postal Affairs Tim King, who was forced to pull the plug on two of the four offshore application development pilot projects he initiated in the past 12 months. |
| 105. |
Stronger WLAN security standard approved. SAN FRANCISCO - The IEEE 802.11i specification, the latest set of rules to bolster security on wireless LANs, has received final approval, according to a co-author of the standard. |
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InfoWorld: Security
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|
| 106. |
D-Link India develops low-cost Linux networking gear. D-Link India Ltd. has developed low-cost, Linux-based networking equipment such as routers and firewalls, and VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) phones, specially designed for the requirements of emerging economies, according to an executive of the company. |
| 107. |
Reports of phishing attacks up, again, in May. BOSTON - Incidents of phishing, a type of online identity theft, were up slightly in May, after surging in March and April, according to a report from an industry group. |
| 108. |
Web attack aims to steal surfers' financial details. A new Internet attack discovered late Thursday was designed by an infamous group of Russian virus writers to steal credit card and other financial information from Web surfers and send it to Web sites where it can be retrieved by hackers, security experts warned Friday. |
| 109. |
MS issues warning on Web attacks, pushes XP SP2 beta. Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Thursday that Internet Information Server (IIS), a component of the Windows 2000 Server, and holes in the Internet Explorer Web browser are being used in widespread attacks that are compromising Web pages and using them as launching pads for malicious computer code. |
| 110. |
Experts agree on method, not scope of IIS attacks. BOSTON - One day after reports of Web site attacks surfaced, there was disagreement about how widespread the attacks were and how many Internet users were affected by them. |
| 111. |
U.S. Senate approves antipiracy bill. WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate has passed a bill allowing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in addition to copyright holders, to file civil lawsuits against alleged copyright pirates, over the objections of peer-to-peer (P-to-P) software vendors. ADVERTISEMENT Download Strategic Value of Moving to Linux Business White Paper
Find out how your company can reduce IT costs or improve efficiency, you are probably considering Linux and what role it will play in your company. |
| 112. |
Windows Server 2003 vanishes from vulnerability list. Getting a message or two daily from Symantec's Deep Sight is pretty normal. In those messages I get an early warning of things that could turn out to be vulnerabilities. Sometimes that trickle of warnings becomes a flood, which lets me know that something is about to break loose. |
| 113. |
Lock down links from anywhere. OK, so you’re not a government contractor operating out of Iraq. Maybe you’re just a healthcare company concerned about protecting private information, or you’re a technology or pharmaceutical company with intellectual property to keep under wraps. In these and similar scenarios, accessing your sensitive information remotely could expose it to capture by third parties. To prevent eavesdropping, you need to use a communications device that provides a high level of encryption. |
| 114. |
Exclusive: Zone Labs Integrity 5.0 firewall offering burns brightly. Installing personal firewall software on workstations throughout your company is a good idea, even if you have a firewall appliance protecting your network’s edge. After all, you can’t anticipate when your network will be infected from an internal source or when your hardware firewall might fail you — being prepared for these possibilities simply makes sense. Software firewalls such as Zone Labs’ Integrity 5.0, which offer varying degrees of protection and management flexibility, can be easily deployed in a large enterprise environment. |
| 115. |
Stronger WLAN security standard approved. SAN FRANCISCO - The IEEE 802.11i specification, the latest set of rules to bolster security on wireless LANs, has received final approval, according to a co-author of the standard. |
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LinuxSecurity.com
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|
| 116. |
Latest Web services spec tackles application flaws |
| 117. |
Feds urge secrecy over network outages |
| 118. |
Building a Linux Router-Firewall |
| 119. |
Linux Advisory Watch - June 25th 2004 |
| 120. |
Book Review: HackNotes Network Security Portable Reference |
| 121. |
Fedora: 2: dhcp Buffer overflow vulnerability |
| 122. |
Debian: apache Buffer overflow vulnerability |
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SecurityFocus News
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| 123. |
Elsewhere: Now We Need To Worry About VoIP Spam. We're still trying to beat down spam, and people have been getting increasingly worried about IM spam and SMS spam, and all of a sudden one company is warning us that the... |
| 124. |
Elsewhere: New WiFi standard aimed at security is ratified. The WiFi soup just got another friend: 802.11i. The new standard was ratified yesterday by the IEEE standards committee, and it brings stronger encryption and better secu... |
| 125. |
Columnists: When Spyware Crosses the Line. "Spyware" isn't harmless software when it starts hijacking your browser, downloading updates, and displaying adult porn images to small children. |
| 126. |
News: Infectious Web sites attack through Microsoft browser. The Associated Press By Ted Bridis |
| 127. |
News: Web infection may be aimed at stealing financial data. The Associated Press By Anick Jesdanun |
| 128. |
News: Feds urge secrecy over network outages. The Department of Homeland Security wants details of major service outages kept out of the public eye. |
| 129. |
News:
Wi-fi hopper guilty of cyber-extortion. FBI agents initially traced threats to a suburban dentist's office, and other spots with unsecured wireless networks. |
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SecurityFocus Vulns
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|
| 130. |
BugTraq: [ GLSA 200406-20 ] FreeS/WAN, Openswan, strongSwan: Vulnerabilities in certificate handling. Sender: Thierry Carrez [koon at gentoo dot org] |
| 131. |
BugTraq: [SECURITY] [DSA 525-1] New apache packages fix buffer overflow in mod_proxy. Sender: Matt Zimmerman [mdz at debian dot org] |
| 132. |
BugTraq: RE: Microsoft and Security. Sender: Drew Copley [dcopley at eEye dot com] |
| 133. |
BugTraq: Zone Labs response to "ZoneAlarm Pro 'Mobile Code' Bypass Vulnerability". Sender: Zone Labs Product Security [Product-Security at zonelabs dot com] |
| 134. |
Vulns: BT Voyager 2000 Wireless ADSL Router SNMP Community String Information Disclosure Vulnerability. The BT Voyager 2000 Wireless ADSL Router is a hardware solution for sharing a single Internet connection using wireless technology.
BT Voyager 2000 Wireless ADSL Router ... |
| 135. |
Vulns: Racoon IKE Daemon Unauthorized X.509 Certificate Connection Vulnerability. racoon is an IKE (Internet Key Exchange) daemon included in KAME's IPsec utilities and the Linux 2.6 Kernel port IPsec-Tools.
The racoon IKE daemon is prone to a securit... |
| 136. |
Vulns: Multiple Vendor Broadband Router Web-Based Administration Denial Of Service Vulnerability. Multiple broadband routers from several different vendors, used for home and small office Internet sharing and routing are reported affected by a denial of service vulner... |
| 137. |
Vulns: Multiple Browser URI Obfuscation Weakness. A weakness is reported in Microsoft Internet Explorer and Opera browser that may allow an attacker to obfuscate the URI of a link. This could facilitate the impersonation... |
| 138. |
Vulns: ArbitroWeb PHP Proxy Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability. ArbitroWeb is an anonymous web surfing proxy written in PHP.
It is reported that ArbitroWeb is susceptible to a cross-site scripting vulnerability in its rawURL URI para... |
| 139. |
Vulns: Linux Kernel IEEE 1394 Integer Overflow Vulnerability. The IEEE 1394 driver implements the IEEE 1394 high speed serial bus. It is also called Firewire or i.Link.
The driver for IEEE 1394 in the Linux kernel is reported to co... |
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The Register
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|
| 140. |
Satellites get smart. Automated flood detection, for starters By Lucy Sherriff . |
| 141. |
ICSTIS blames dialler scams for premium rate freeze. Punters need protecting By Tim Richardson . |
| 142. |
US army dips into nanotech research. Small Soldiers By Lucy Sherriff . |
| 143. |
Russia fines text hack spammer. In brief U iz nikdski By Tim Richardson . |
| 144. |
Outed: Skype project to dial real phone numbers. Ripe for Skype Hype By Guy Kewney, Newswireless.net . |
| 145. |
Hitachi and NEC look to network Japan. New venture begins Asian persuasion By Ashlee Vance . |
| 146. |
Wi-Fi is big hit for Tae Kwon Do. Martial Law By Lucy Sherriff . |
| 147. |
Sun slams Red Hat. Solaris 'cheaper than Linux', says exec By Ashlee Vance . |
| 148. |
Intel recalls faulty Grantsdale chipsets. Only channel affected By Ashlee Vance . |
| 149. |
Egenera and its amazing technicolor IPO. Made to order vendor By Ashlee Vance . |
| 150. |
HP recalls notebook RAM. Chipset glitch By Andrew Orlowski . |
| 151. |
Dirty rotten inducers - the law the IT world deserves?. Criminalizing the iPod By Andrew Orlowski . |
| 152. |
Acquisitor blocks Baltimore cash return. Muscle flexing By electricnews.net . |
| 153. |
Wi-fi hopper guilty of cyber-extortion. Give me $17m. Or else By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus . |
| 154. |
Amazon goes to court to fire Toysrus.com. Please leave $750m at the door By Drew Cullen . |
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Wired News
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| 155. |
Senate: Toss Film Pirates in Jail. The U.S. Senate unanimously passes a bill that would send anyone who illegally copies or distributes movies to jail for three to 10 years. A House subcommittee approved a similar bill in March. |
| 156. |
'Extremophiles' Prove Their Worth. Scientists are 'bio-prospecting' single-celled critters that live in the harshest environments on Earth for their hardy genes. But some question whether anyone should profit from Mother Nature. |
| 157. |
New Virus May Steal Data. The latest virus plaguing Windows machines appears to be designed to steal credit card numbers and other important financial data, security analysts are saying. |
| 158. |
Seach for Arctic Life Heats Up. Researchers are keen to catalog creatures that live in an Arctic Ocean region isolated from other waters for millions of years, but melting ice won't leave it alone for long. By Stephen Leahy. |
| 159. |
Congress Looks Out for Hollywood. It was a good week for Hollywood and record companies. Allies in Congress passed or advanced a slew of legislation that could outlaw a range of devices and software, and impose severe penalties on anyone caught trading files. By Katie Dean. |
| 160. |
Starry-Eyed Travelers Must Wait. The recent success of the privately financed SpaceShipOne may have you plotting your own space excursion, but you may be waiting for a flight for quite some time. By Dan Brekke. |
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Help Net Security
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|
| 161. |
How to use cryptography in computer security |
| 162. |
Mac OS X security myth exposed |
| 163. |
Security breaches, congestion found at trade show WLAN |
| 164. |
Interview with Gene Hodges, Network Associates President |
| 165. |
Could search sites spawn worms? |
| 166. |
NewsIsFree: Your own Advanced News Reader and Feed Publisher. Read news from thousands of news sources updated every 15 minutes on the most powerful news aggregator.
Create custom feeds with more items, descriptions, select your version of RSS...
Check out NewsIsFree's services!
|
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NewsIsFree: Security
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|
| 167. |
Mandrake: kernel Multiple vulnerabilities |
| 168. |
Gentoo: FreeS/WAN,Openswan,strongSwan Non-authentication vulnerabilities |
| 169. |
Gentoo: giFT-FastTrack Denial of service vulnerability |
| 170. |
Gentoo: gzip Insecure temporary file vulnerability |
| 171. |
Gentoo: IPsec-Tools Non-authentication vulnerability |
| 172. |
Gentoo: Apache 1.3 Buffer overflow vulnerability |
| 173. |
Suse: dhcp/dhcp-server Buffer overflow vulnerability |
| 174. |
Trustix: libpng,mod_php4,openssl,rsync,slocate,swup Multiple vulnerabilities |
| 175. |
Fedora: 1: kernel Multiple vulnerabilities |
| 176. |
Fedora: 2: dhcp Buffer overflow vulnerability |
| 177. |
Debian: apache Buffer overflow vulnerability |
| 178. |
Six Flags: All weapons allowed! |
| 179. |
Biometrics and mistaken identity |
| 180. |
Razor blades |
| 181. |
New York Subways -- No Photos Without Permission! |
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About Internet/Network Security
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| 182. |
Spyware Legislation. A District Judge recently granted an injunction temporarily stopping the first anti-spyware bill in the country while both the United States House and Senate consider legislation of their own to outlaw the practice of secretly installing software on computers to... |
