Views Archive
Spyware Removal -- It's Getting Harder
The Registrer has an interesting article about the Cool Web Shredder trojan removal tool. Meanwhile, NPR’s Morning Edition today had a story about organized criminals increasingly using spyware for identity theft.Good reading and good listening….
Justice Department: Whoops, We Changed Our Mind!
Following negative fallout, the Department of Jusice has decided to recind its order asking the Depository Libraries to destroy books.Coverage in: Boing Boing, ResourceShelf, and The American Library Association…
Face Recognition For Passports Is Error-Prone
Despite warnings that facial-recognition technology is prone to a high rate of error, the U.S. State Department is moving ahead with plans to embed microchips that will allow computer matching of facial characteristics in U.S. passports. Federal researchers, academics, and…
Justice To Libraries: Please Destroy Some Books For Us
The Department of Justice has asked the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents to instruct federal depository libraries around the country to destroy five publications that the Department of Justice has deemed not “appropriate for external use.” Two of these…
Nanosys's Wise Move
Nanotech’s first big IPO is not happening. Yesterday, Nanosys announced it was withdrawing its initial public offering because of “adverse market conditions.” The plethora of analysts and pundits suddenly expert on the nanotech market (what market, you might wisely ask)…
Brown != Terrorist; does Photographer == Terrorist?
A few weeks ago I was nearly arrested on the Boston Subway for taking out a camera and trying to take a photograph through the front window of a Green Line car while we were emerging from a tunnel. I…
Nothing Gold Can Stay
To most, it should come as no shock to learn that compact discs don’t last forever. But some people quoted in this BBC News article seem surprised–even offended–to find that they have outlived some of their CDs. Sure, CDs are…
Doom's Day
It’s Doom’s Day.Doom III, the third computer game in id Software’s legendary first person shooter franchise, is finally on shelves. The game’s arrival – a midnight release party at computer stores around the country, preceded by a now customary pirated…
Hacking RFID
Radio-frequency identification tags are supposed to make life easier for retailers–improving supply chain management, simplifying inventory tracking, and reducing theft. But RFID could actually make life easier for in-store thieves, says a German information security consultant. Forbes.com reports on Lukas…
Code Orange
Boston may never have been a target, but the Department of Homeland Security has raised the terror alert from Yellow to Orange in DC, NYC, and NJ….