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| Notice: GeekPress is back up and running, thanks to Paul! It's still a not-so-serious tech news blog, but the format is significantly looser. Diana, having given up programming for philosophy, has her own philosophical blog NoodleFood. More of her work can be found at DianaHsieh.com. |
| Felony spam |
| 1:53:16 am mst / 14 March 2001 found by paul / filed in legal / source San Diego Union Tribune 100 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Two San Diego County men will be prosecuted for the first case of felony e-mail spamming under California law. |
| I know a few more people who should join that list... |
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| No more snow days |
| 3:39:20 am mst / 14 March 2001 found by paul / filed in education / source NY Times 34 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| A New York City school teacher is using e-mail and the Web to give homework assignments and allow students to turn in projects when the public schools are closed due to snow days. |
| I was suprised at the 90% figure for students who were able to get net access somehow (e.g., through friends or relatives). They're more motivated that I would have guessed. |
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| More on URL spoofing |
| 7:52:10 am mst / 14 March 2001 found by paul / filed in security / source Security Geeks 270 hits / 1 comment / 0 e-mails |
| Another excellent article on the methods used to obfuscate and conceal the real destinations of URL's. |
| read 1 comment |
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| Prepaid Phones and Privacy, Too |
| 9:37:28 am mst / 14 March 2001 found by paul / filed in security / source Wired 45 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Declan McCullagh writes that marketplace innovations like prepaid mobile telephones and anonymous prepaid credit cards may be a more useful way of protecting consumer privacy than government regulations. |
| I predict these products will catch on over the next few years. |
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| Online Museum of Fraud |
| 10:54:09 am mst / 14 March 2001 found by paul / filed in security / source Register 52 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Interesting article about the Adcops Online Museum of Fraud, detailing methods by which crackers can commit credit card fraud. Some of the information includes details on malicious CGI login forms, and details on how to generate valid Luhn numbers for online orders. |
| Warning: The best stuff on the site is apparently available only to members. I didn't want to sign up for the membership, so I can't verify the details for myself. |
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| 747 vs Cloud |
| 11:37:57 am mst / 14 March 2001 found by diana / filed in science / source Straight Dope 158 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Cecil Adams answers that question that has been secretly burning in our minds: Can a cloud weigh as much as a 747? But then all manner of confusion erupts when physicist weighs in about the difference between weight and mass... |
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| 3D optical memories |
| 12:02:28 pm mst / 14 March 2001 found by paul / filed in inventions / source Nature 66 hits / 1 comment / 0 e-mails |
| Spanish and Canadian scientists have developed a new mixture of glass and plastic (a "photopolymer") that would be well-suited for high-density 3D optical holographic storage. |
| Maybe they'll look like the colored lucite memory modules that Geordi LaForge was always working with on "Star Trek: The Next Generation". |
| read 1 comment |
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| Coke to use cybersex to appeal to young women |
| 12:52:37 pm mst / 14 March 2001 found by paul / filed in business / source Australian 128 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| The website for Diet Coke will use good-looking hunky virtual men to flirt with their primary marketing audience of young women. |
| One spokesman also noted, "the site was not aimed at gay men 'but you would definitely think... it would be pretty popular'." |
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| BBB: Don't Come to Our Site! |
| 2:25:44 pm mst / 14 March 2001 found by diana / filed in legal / source Politech 106 hits / 2 comments / 0 e-mails |
| The Better Business Bureau is apparently trying to prevent other web sites from linking to them, on the grounds that the material on their web site is copyrighted. |
| There just doesn't seem to be any end to dumb arguments about the internet and copyrights! |
| read 2 comments |
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| Next generation search engines |
| 4:57:30 pm mst / 14 March 2001 found by paul / filed in internet / source New Scientist 81 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| As more multimedia content shows up on the web, programmers are working hard on search engines that can search based on sounds or images input by the user, then find likely matches. |
| I love the idea of being able to hum a tune into one's computer, then have it figure out the title! |
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| The Case Against Micropayments |
| 7:38:42 pm mst / 14 March 2001 found by diana / filed in business / source O'Reilly Network 71 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| A recent Slashdot interview with Clay Shirky pointed me to this December 2000 article on why micropayments are doomed as a revenue model. The basic argument is that the decision to micropay is time-costly for end-users, even when the dollar amount is trivial. |
| A very clear, simple, and compelling case against micropayments! |
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| Inside the iFeel Mouse |
| 11:31:15 pm mst / 14 March 2001 found by paul / filed in hardware / source Dan's Data 162 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| How does the Logitech iFeel tactile feedback mouse work? Dan's Data takes one apart and shows us. |
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