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Love More Powerful than Sex, Study Claims
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Senior Writer
posted: 31 May 2005
11:52 am ET
Sex and romance may seem inextricably linked, but the human brain clearly distinguishes between the two, according to a new study. The upshot: Love is the more powerful emotion.
The results of brain scans speak to longstanding questions of whether the pursuit of love and sex are different emotional endeavors or whether romance is just warmed over sexual arousal.
"Our findings show that the brain areas activated when someone looks at a photo of their beloved only partially overlap with the brain regions associated with sexual arousal," said Arthur Aron of the State University of New York-Stony Brook. "Sex and romantic love involve quite different brain systems."
The study, announced today, will be detailed in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology.
Left side, right side
The study was small, however, involving 17 young men and women, all of whom had recently fallen madly in love. They filled out questionnaires while their brains were hooked up to a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) system.
Romance seems to steep in parts of the brain that are rich in dopamine, a chemical known to affect emotions. These brain regions are also linked by other studies to the motivation for rewards.
"To our surprise, the activation regions associated with intense romantic love were mostly on the right side of the brain, while the activation regions associated with facial attractiveness were mostly on the left," said Lucy Brown of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
The study also revealed that as a romance matures, so does the mind.
"We found several brain areas where the strength of neural activity changed with the length of the romance," Brown said. "Everyone knows that relationships are dynamic over time, but we are beginning to track what happens in the brain as a love relationship matures."
Love wins
The processing of romantic feelings involves a "constellation of neural systems." The researchers -- neuroscientists, anthropologists and social psychologists -- declare love the clear winner versus sex in terms of its power over the human mind.
"Romantic love is one of the most powerful of all human experiences," said study member Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University. "It is definitely more powerful than the sex drive."
Fisher said the study might suggest some of the physiology of stalking behavior. Other studies suggest that up to 40 percent of people who are rejected in love slip into clinical depression, she said.
"Rejected men and women in societies around the world sometimes kill themselves or someone else," Fisher said.
Animals, too
There are hints in the study that romance is not a uniquely human trait.
Some of the changes seen with mature romances were in regions of the brain also associated with pair-bonding in prairie voles. Other studies have found that expressions of attraction in a female prairie vole are linked to a 50 percent hike in dopamine activity in the brain region that corresponds to the location where human romance is processed.
"These and other data indicate that all mammals may feel attraction to specific partners, and that some of the same brain systems are involved," Fisher said.
The Origin of Sex: Cosmic Solution to Ancient Mystery
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
Comets and asteroids have been blamed for a lot of things before. Shaping Earth. Jumpstarting life. Wiping out dinosaurs. Even possibly altering human evolution.
But never sex.
Roughly 1 billion years after the first organisms romped in the hay, the origin of sex remains one of biology's greatest mysteries. Scientists can't say exactly why we do it, or what triggered those initial terrestrial flirtations. Before sex, life seemed to manage fine by employing asexual reproduction -- the cloning of offspring without the help of a partner.
Now a new study out of Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has used digital organisms to simulate life before sex and yielded a possible mechanism for instigating Earth's first courtship.
Intimacy never sounded so stressful.
Comet or asteroid impacts could have stressed asexual organisms enough to send them down the path of sexual reproduction after forcing a flurry of genetic mutations, the study shows. Heavy doses of radiation might also have done the trick.
While these potential catalysts for mutations are highly speculative, researchers Claus Wilke and Chris Adami announced Monday night that they have determined with certainty one possible way that organisms could have managed such a chaotic environment to their advantage in opening the original door to sexual liberation.
The key to this mutation management, Adami told SPACE.com, is the discovery that when things get rough, a population of organisms adapts to handling a few mutations, while also ensuring that many mutations will be self-destructive.
"Mutations can and do still occur," he said, "but they lead to dead organisms and therefore do not affect the future."
Before sex
Sex never should have happened, biologists often say.
Though the ultimate act of affection has been around longer than anyone can remember, it wasn't always so. On the early Earth, all organisms reproduced asexually.
Any gardener is familiar with how asexual production works. Underground runners can create multiple clones (not to mention destroy a good lawn). Potatoes give up an eye to create another potato. Bulbs divide. Cacti, exhibiting no creativity in this area but managing to foster progeny nonetheless, simply let pieces of themselves fall to the ground and hope for the best.
Some animals get in on the asexual act, too. Sponges and sea anemones produce little ones via buds. Flatworms, if cut in two, grow a new head on one of their severed ends and a new tail on the other.
These are handy and powerful ways to leave a legacy.
For one thing, there's no need for a partner -- no butting of horns, no beating of the chest, no late nights at the bar. Reproduction is virtually guaranteed. Also, when desirable traits evolve, they are not quickly diluted by evolution. Your offspring are just like you. Exact clones.
Sex, on the other hand, combines myriad mutations with each pairing of genes, and the process "can wash out the good and accumulate the bad," Adami says. Just ask any failed child of successful parents.
The age of sex
Despite all these advantages for asexual reproduction, somewhere along the evolutionary line sex became all the rage.
Thankfully so, for we humans owe our existence to that first melding of the genes. Asexual reproduction provides for a plodding style of evolution, relying solely on accidental mutations to effect change. It's an evolutionary slow train that might never have gotten around to delivering humans. It can also limit a population's ability to survive severe environmental change.
Sex, on the other hand, allows plants and animals to evolve quickly, because the gene pool mixes and the fitter survive.
Yet as any parent knows, sex is a rather inefficient way to make babies. Biologically speaking, the man spends nine months doing absolutely nothing productive while the woman does all the work (in some households, this problem is known to persist far longer).
So in an evolutionary sense, why would sex ever have become so popular? More to the point, why would any asexual organism have bothered to try out sex in the first place?
We're all mutants
Researchers have long known that mutations rewrite portions of an organism's genetic code. Some mutations can be good, in fact helping a species to thrive at the expense of others. But the effect can sometimes be deadly. Since sex involves two parents, there is twice the number of mutations to muck up the genetic scripts.
Wilke and Adami created two different simple, computerized life forms that "share many characteristics with bacteria," then placed them in a stressful environment where the rate of mutations was high. By studying digital creatures, they were able to zip through many generations in a short time.
The scientists found a natural throttle to the number of mutations a population of asexual bacteria can handle. The throttle can be thought of as a conservation law. The law dictates that a population capable of adapting to the harmful effects of a few mutations cannot possibly handle a bunch of mutations. Past a critical limit, the accumulated mutations make gibberish out of the genetic code and the organisms die.
Conversely, the new law also shows that a population which can handle many mutations would be highly vulnerable to the first few. "In fact there are such organisms [today]," Adami said. "Sex could, however, never evolve" in such a population. The offspring would be too vulnerable to the initial flurry of mutations that would be written into its code, combined from two organisms.
The birth of sex
Now imagine simple organisms long ago that just happened to share genetic information in a loose and uncoordinated fashion. Such sharing goes on today without leading to reproduction.
If such a population of organisms were suddenly faced with the stress of high mutation rates, it would over the course of many generations develop a capacity to handle a few mutations. But by the new law, numerous mutations would be intolerable.
The effect of all this, Adami says, is that bad mutations would be weeded out of the population.
When multiple mutations are intolerable, bad mutations cannot accumulate, because each successive bad mutation has an increasingly deadly effect on an already weakened organism. Useful mutations, however, do not harm a population in these conditions, Adami said.
Put another way: "When multiple mutations are intolerable, bad mutations cannot accumulate, while the good ones still can."
This could pave the way for the benefits of sex to be enjoyed.
A theoretical door would be open to sexual freedom, and if a pair of organisms mutated enough to go behind that door, then their newfound ability to share beneficial mutations, via sex, would give them a Darwinian advantage over their asexual cousins in the highly stressful environment.
"You can imagine a path that leads from the uncorrelated exchange of genetic material to the completely orchestrated recombination process," he says, referring to the birth of sex.
Any number of catastrophes might have fueled a changed environment and a rate of high mutations, Adami explains. A cosmic impact could have altered Earth's atmosphere for millions of years, exposing the planet to high doses of radiation. Increased volcanic activity is another possible source.
But Adami stressed that these possibilities, while useful to consider, were not a part of the study and so remain highly speculative.
Not actually living organisms
Clifford W. Zeyl, who studies evolutionary genetics at Wake Forest University, called the work surprising and interesting, but added a further caution:
"Since the idea came from a study of digital organisms and not from any historical evidence that such stresses actually acted on living organisms, or that they would have had the effect of selecting for sex, I think it's highly speculative," Zeyl said.
Adami is confident that the computer experiment renders an accurate picture, and he suspects that if such a test could be carried out on real organisms (it can't, because it would take too long) similar results might be found.
"The digital organisms actually live in the memory of the computer, so all we do is set up the experiment and then observe," he said. He added that some biologists are skeptical of any research carried out using digital organisms, but says there is "no reason whatsoever" to think that the findings would not apply in real-life situations.
The study results are published in the July 22 issue of the Royal Society journal Proceedings: Biological Sciences B.
The Lover's Moon: Go Ahead and Swoon
By SPACE.com Staff
posted: 13 February 2006
06:55 am ET
The Moon was officially full late Sunday night, but to the untrained eye it appears full for a day or two on each side. In reality, the Moon is never really full. So go ahead, swoon to the "Full Moon" with your Valentine.
At full Moon, the satellite is exactly opposite the Sun in our sky. From our surface perspective at sunset, the Moon is rising and it reflects a full disk of sunlight directly to our eyes. The Moon arcs across the sky and sets at sunrise.
The night after it is full, the Moon rises later, typically by about 50 minutes, depending on the season and your latitude.
At last quarter?a week after the full phase?the Moon appears as a backward "D" and does not rise until midnight, remaining in the morning sky until Noon.
Hard to tell
But tonight and Tuesday night, you?d have to look closely to tell if it is still full or not.
The Moon was officially full Feb. 12 at 11:44 p.m. EST.
One minute before that time, it was a waxing gibbous; one minute after that time, it was in the waning gibbous phase.
Here?s the tricky part: The Moon can appear 100 percent sunlit from Earth only if it is diametrically opposite to the Sun in the sky. But at that moment the Moon would be positioned in the middle of Earths shadow?and in total eclipse. So in any month when there is no eclipse, there is an ever-so-slight sliver of darkness somewhere on the lunar limb throughout those hours?or that moment?when the Moon is passing through "full" phase.
The Moon is never really full.
Because the plane of the Moon's orbit is inclined 5 percent with respect to the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun, eclipses occur only every few months when the orbits are lined up just right.
Snow Moon
From lore, this month?s full Moon had the name of the Snow Moon, appropriate in light of the weekend weather in the Northeast. The name was given to a Moon that comes during a time when the heaviest snows typically fall. Hunting is difficult this time of year, so it also carries the name of the Hunger Moon.
The next full Moon will be March 14 at 6:35 p.m. EST. It will be the Worm Moon, coming at a time when the ground tends to soften and earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of the robins. It?s also known as Crow, Crust and Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees
With the March 14 full Moon comes a very minor penumbral lunar eclipse. The Moon will pass through the Earth?s outer shadow and cause a slight tarnishing or smudginess to appear on its lower rim. The darkest phase of this eclipse comes at 6:48 p.m. EST. For about 40 minutes before and after this time, the subtle penumbral shading may be detected with binoculars and even the naked eye.
This article is part of SPACE.com?s weekly Mystery Monday series. SPACE.com?s Senior Science Writer Robert Roy Britt and Night Sky columnist Joe Rao contributed.
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Manuel Villanueva realizes he has been getting a pretty good deal since he signed up for Netflix Inc.'s online DVD rental service 2-1/2 years ago, but he still feels shortchanged.
That's because the $17.99 monthly fee that he pays to rent up to three DVDs at a time would amount to an even bigger bargain if the company didn't penalize him for returning his movies so quickly.
Netflix typically sends about 13 movies a month to Villanueva's home in Warren, Michigan -- down from the 18 to 22 DVDs he once received before the company's automated system identified him as a heavy renter and began delaying his shipments to protect its profits.
The same Netflix formula also shoves Villanueva to the back of the line for the most-wanted DVDs, so the service can send those popular flicks to new subscribers and infrequent renters.
The little-known practice, called "throttling" by critics, means Netflix customers who pay the same price for the same service are often treated differently, depending on their rental patterns.
"I wouldn't have a problem with it if they didn't advertise 'unlimited rentals,' " Villanueva said. "The fact is that they go out of their way to make sure you don't go over whatever secret limit they have set up for your account."
Changing the rules
Los Gatos, California-based Netflix didn't publicly acknowledge it differentiates among customers until revising its "terms of use" in January 2005 -- four months after a San Francisco subscriber filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company had deceptively promised one-day delivery of most DVDs.
"In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service," Netflix's revised policy now reads. The statement specifically warns that heavy renters are more likely to encounter shipping delays and less likely to immediately be sent their top choices.
Few customers have complained about this "fairness algorithm," according to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.
"We have unbelievably high customer satisfaction ratings," Hastings said during a recent interview. "Most of our customers feel like Netflix is an incredible value."
The service's rapid growth supports him. Netflix added nearly 1.6 million customers last year, giving it 4.2 million subscribers through December. During the final three months of 2005, just 4 percent of its customers canceled the service, the lowest rate in the company's six-year history.
After collecting consumer opinions about the Web's 40 largest retailers last year, Ann Arbor, Michigan, research firm ForeSeeResults rated Netflix as "the cream of the crop in customer satisfaction."
Once considered a passing fancy, Netflix has changed the way many households rent movies and has spawned several copycats, including a mail service from Blockbuster Inc.
Netflix's most popular rental plan lets subscribers check out up to three DVDs at a time for $17.99 a month. After watching a movie, customers return the DVD in a postage-paid envelope. Netflix then sends out the next available DVD on the customer's online wish list.
Customers catch on
Because everyone pays a flat fee, Netflix makes more money from customers who watch only four or five DVDs a month. Customers who quickly return their movies to get more erode the company's profit margin, because each DVD sent out and returned costs 78 cents in postage alone.
Although Netflix consistently promoted its service as the DVD equivalent of an all-you-can eat smorgasbord, some heavy renters began to suspect they were being treated differently two or three years ago.
To prove the point, one customer even set up a Web site -- www.dvd-rent-test.dreamhost.com -- to show that the service listed different wait times for DVDs requested by subscribers living in the same household.
Netflix's throttling techniques also have prompted incensed customers to share their outrage in online forums such as www.hackingnetflix.com.
"Netflix isn't well within its rights to throttle users," complained a customer identified as "annoyed" in a posting on the site. "They say unlimited rentals. They are liars."
Hastings said the company has no specified limit on rentals, but "`unlimited' doesn't mean you should expect to get 10,000 a month."
Netflix says most subscribers check out two to 11 DVDs a month.
Growing risk
Management has acknowledged to analysts that it risks losing money on a relatively small percentage of frequent renters. And that risk has increased since Netflix reduced the price of its most popular subscription plan by $4 a month in 2004 and the U.S. Postal Service recently raised first-class mailing costs by 2 cents.
Netflix's approach has paid off, so far. The company has been profitable in each of the past three years, a trend its management expects to continue in 2006 with projected earnings of at least $29 million on revenue of $960 million. Netflix's stock price has more than tripled since its 2002 initial public offering.
A September 2004 lawsuit cast a spotlight on the throttling issue. The complaint, filed by Frank Chavez on behalf of all Netflix subscribers before Jan. 15, 2005, said the company had developed a sophisticated formula to slow DVD deliveries to frequent renters and ensure quicker shipments of the most popular movies to its infrequent -- and most profitable -- renters to keep them happy.
Netflix denied the allegations, but eventually revised its terms of use to acknowledge its different treatment of frequent renters.
Without acknowledging wrongdoing, the company agreed to provide a one-month rental upgrade and pay Chavez's attorneys $2.5 million. But the settlement sparked protests that prompted the two sides to reconsider. A hearing on a revised settlement proposal is scheduled for Feb. 22 in San Francisco Superior Court.
Netflix subscribers such as Nathaniel Irons didn't believe the company was purposely delaying some DVD shipments until he read the revised terms of use.
Irons, 28, of Seattle, has no plans to cancel his service because he figures he is still getting a good value from the eight movies he typically receives each month.
"My own personal experience has not been bad," he said, "but (the throttling) is certainly annoying when it happens."
AACS copy protection for Blu-ray disc and HD DVD delayed
Posted by Dan Bell on 14 February 2006 - 14:49 - Source: Heise
Let's just hope that the struggle to lock down content does not kill both these awesome formats. But, we must admit it is taking a long time to hammer out the copy protection on the blue laser format. This must be a nightmare for the developers of both camps!
Last Friday, the meeting of the AACS LA was to resolve the final specifications of the new Advanced Access Content System (AACS). But insiders are reporting that no such agreement was reached. Instead, it is said that an important member of the Blu-ray Disc Association is still voicing concerns about the interaction of AACS and the additional BD+ protection for Blu-ray movies. The next meeting is scheduled for February 23rd and 24th.
Without the AACS specification, the copy protection keys that manufacturers of drives and media need cannot be produced. For instance, manufacturers such as NEC, Pioneer, Samsung, and Toshiba are eagerly awaiting the specifications so they can implement AACS in their equipment. This is an excellent article and we just have a small snippet here. We strongly urge you read the whole thing, as it has a lot of very important information. Especially if you are not sure what is going on with AACS. They seem to hit all the most pertinent points in this article and you can really grasp the situation as it applies to the end user and the content providers by reading it.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13064
AACS copy protection for Blu-ray disc and HD DVD delayed again
Last Friday, the meeting of the AACS LA was to resolve the final specifications of the new Advanced Access Content System (AACS). But insiders are reporting that no such agreement was reached. Instead, it is said that an important member of the Blu-ray Disc Association is still voicing concerns about the interaction of AACS and the additional BD+ protection for Blu-ray movies. The next meeting is scheduled for February 23rd and 24th.
Without the AACS specification, the copy protection keys that manufacturers of drives and media need cannot be produced. For instance, manufacturers such as NEC, Pioneer, Samsung, and Toshiba are eagerly awaiting the specifications so they can implement AACS in their equipment.
Hollywood movie studios are insisting that such protection be included in all drives. Without AACS, high-resolution movies can't be played back. A Mandatory Managed Copy (MMC) can, however, be made. Only if the holder of the copyright gives explicit consent may a limited number of copies of the original disc be created; the movie may also not be streamed via a Media Center or to mobile devices without express consent. An online connection is required to check for rights to make a permitted copy. The holder of the copyright may, however, completely rule out copies or demand a fee.
AACS can renew device keys, thereby blocking manipulated drives. BD+ provides additional protection for Blu-ray discs: here, a program in a Java Virtual Machine constantly monitors the movie's data stream and stops playback if there is any manipulation. To prevent the data stream from being grabbed on its path from the player software to the graphics card, Microsoft's Certified Output Protection Protocol (COPP) will monitor the connection. Among other things, COPP is designed to prevent movies from being output to a virtual graphics card that redirects the data into a file. Graphics cards can be upgraded to COPP by means of a driver update; Windows XP supports COPP upwards of Service Pack 2, as will the upcoming Windows Vista.
In turn, HD output is only possible if the graphics card encrypts the digital monitor signal at the DVI output via HDCP or if it has an HDMI output. Likewise, the monitor must support HDCP / HDMI. Without this encryption, the movie will only be played in standard resolutions. The first graphics cards that support HDCP are to hit stores in the 2nd quarter; current models cannot be upgraded because they lack the special BIOS chip required.
Now that the AACS specification has been postponed once again, the sales releases announced for the first Blu-ray burners, HD DVD drives, and stand-alone players at the beginning of March will probably not be possible; we can expect the delay to move the schedule back at least one month. As one Blu-ray manufacturer told heise online, "We need at least two or three weeks to apply for the keys and implement the system." (Craig Morris) / (jk/c't)
Print version http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/69559
Monday, 13 February 2006
Electric Super Car Tops 180 MPH
Topic: New Vehicles
Would you believe an emission free car that can blows away almost every vehicle the road? That's the claim from Hybrid Technologies, which says it will soon start selling the Lithium Carbon Fiber Super Car.
The vehicle uses lithium batteries and will reach 180 mph, and go 0 to 60 mph in just over 3 seconds, according to the Hybrid Technologies, which is building the car in partnership with exotic sports car maker Mullen Motors.
But something doesn't add up. If it is truly emission free, then it should be powered by a fuel cell vehicle and not an ICE. But a sporty fuel cell vehicle with lithium batteries for $124,900 would be quite the bargain.
More details will be available when the car debuts at the NY International Auto Show in April.
Posted by John at 9:21 AM PST | post your comment (5) | link to this post
MovieBeam Inc. is hoping that you'll adopt a TiVo-like service model to tap into HD movies delivered right to your TV. But TiVo isn't under threat from MovieBeam. Netflix, get off the couch and come in here and meet your new competition!
Well, MovieBeam isn't exactly new. The company and its eponymous service are the fruits of a Disney spin-off. Back in 2003, Disney attempted to build excitement for the service when it was being trialed in a handful of major US cities. The service was simple, yet seemingly powerful: a set-top box capable of storing 100 movies would be "loaded" with content via over-the-air digital signals that would piggyback on TV towers. On the surface, the deal sounded great: tons of movies, no late fees, not wiring, and no trips to the video store. But the monthly charge of US$7 was too high for a service that still charges for rentals, and it dampened interest in the offering. Last year it appeared that Disney had written the experiment off for good, but the company apparently is a true believer. Spun-off with a cash infusion from Disney and three other major investors, MovieBeam is going to try to make it on its own.
The new MovieBeam has had a bit of a make-over. Gone is the monthly service charge. Now users pay $3.99 for recent standard definition movies, $1.99 for classics, or $4.99 for HD titles?all roughly on par with what you can expect to pay at your local video store. What's more, MovieBeam has movies from all of the major studios except Sony, which is still in negotiations with the company.
But that vanquished service charge was hiding something: the cost of the set-top box. MovieBeam customers will now have to pony-up $199 (after $50 rebate) and a $29 activation fee to get their hands on the set-top box necessary to use the service. The set-top box is manufactured by Linksys, and comes pre-loaded with movies (that you need to unlock by paying for them).
The set-top player has 160GB of storage and features AV connections for HDMI, component, S-video, composite and audio connection ports including digital coaxial, SP/DIF, HDMI and left/right stereo audio. The service utilizes Windows Media TM 9/VC-1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 as its video and audio codecs, respectively. The unit also includes an Ethernet port, which will eventually be updated to support delivery by broadband.
"We have built MovieBeam to directly address what?s most important to our target customers: convenience, quality and choice," said Tres Izzard, president and CEO of MovieBeam, Inc. "Our target customers are movie lovers who want a more convenient way to rent the movies they want to watch when they want to watch them and value the overall quality of the experience. MovieBeam provides an attractive alternative to other options ? bringing the sizable selection of the back wall of the video store directly into customers? living rooms. Movies are always available for instant viewing, with no trips to video store, no out-of-stock titles, no damaged discs, no late return fees and no waiting by the mailbox for DVDs."
MovieBeam has a lot going for it, but it is also stifled by the typical kinds of lame limitations that make a service like this look like a gold dig. Most notably, "rentals" are only good for 24 hours. Despite the fact that it's brain-dead easy for them to deliver a movie to you and despite the fact that there's nothing to return to them, they're adopting this ridiculously small viewing window. The only justification for a viewing window this small is that they're obviously concerned about multiple viewings, either by you or someone else in your home. Oh, the horror!!
MovieBeam plans to roll out additional accessories in the future, including a USB antenna and software service so that MovieBeam could be used on a computer. The company says that they also hope to develop a service where renters could actually buy movies and burn them to a portable format, but such is easier said than done. To date, buying movies from the major studios has been strictly a brick-and-mortar affair.
MovieBeam is an interesting idea, but it's debuting in a tight space. Cable and satellite have been pushing "on demand" content for years now, using the same equipment that users are largely already familiar with. Netflix, while low-tech, can offer a better value for frequent movie watchers. The service shows some promise in the HD department, but will that be enough to push it on to success? We'll see. MoviBeam is being rolled out in 29 US cities right now, and they hope to have national coverage within the year.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060214-6175.html
By John Hudson | Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Feb, 14, 2006
For the first time researchers have created a working prototype of a radical new chip design based on magnetism instead of electrical transistors.
As transistor-based microchips hit the limits of Moore's Law, a group of electrical engineers at the University of Notre Dame has fabricated a chip that uses nanoscale magnetic "islands" to juggle the ones and zeroes of binary code.
Wolfgang Perod and his colleagues turned to the process of magnetic patterning (.pdf) to produce a new chip that uses arrays of separate magnetic domains. Each island maintains its own magnetic field.
Because the chip has no wires, its device density and processing power may eventually be much higher than transistor-based devices. And it won't be nearly as power-hungry, which will translate to less heat emission and a cooler future for portable hardware like laptops.
Computers using the magnetic chips would boot up almost instantly. The magnetic chip's memory is non-volatile, making it impervious to power interruptions, and it retains its data when the device is switched off.
The magnetic architecture of the chip can be reprogrammed on the fly and its adaptability could make it very popular with manufacturers of special-purpose computing hardware, from video-game platforms to medical diagnostic equipment.
"The value of magnetic patterning in storage devices such as hard drives has been known for a long time," said Wolfgang Porod, Freimann professor of electrical engineering at the University of Notre Dame. "What is unique here is that we've applied the patterning concept to the actual processing."
The chip's nanomagnets -- on the order of 110-nanometers wide -- can be assembled into arrays that mirror the function of transistor-based logic gates, in addition to storing information. These logic gates are the building blocks of computer technology, giving microchips the power to process the endless rivers of binary code.
A NAND logic gate for example, accepts two inputs to arrive at one output. If both inputs are one, the NAND gate spits out a zero. If one or the other or both inputs are a zero, the NAND gate provides a one as an output.
Porod and his colleagues equipped their new chip with a universal logic gate -- a combination of the NAND and NOR gates. Together, these two logic gates can perform any of the basic arithmetic functions intrinsic to all computer processing.
This exotic method of transistorless processing -- known as magnetic quantum cellular automata -- originally used individual electrons as quantum dots, arranged in a matrix of cells to handle logic operations. But nanoscale magnets proved to be a much better alternative because they were not subject to stray electrical charges, and they were easier to fabricate.
"The magnets were created from ferromagnetic nickel/iron alloy," said Porod. "We evaporated a thin layer of the alloy onto a silicon surface, then patterned the islands using electron-beam lithography."
Logic operations within the processor commence with a pulsed magnetic field on the input magnet, which alters the orientation of its magnetic field. This creates a cascade effect across the array, as magnetostatic attraction and repulsion cause the fields of adjacent magnets to "flip".
"To read the output, we used a scanning probe to infer what the magnetization was," said Porod. "Ideally, in the future, we would like to achieve this (input and output) with the simple application of an electric current."
Although existing technologies use magnetic fields to store information on small chips called MRAMs, this is the first application to produce a chip that can process digital information in addition to storing it.
The potential of chips driven by nanoscale magnets was considered five years ago at London's Imperial College. Russell Cowburn, professor of nanotechnology -- along with his colleagues -- observed that the magnets could exchange information as their fields interacted with each other.
Cowburn is encouraged by the technological leaps made at the University of Notre Dame. "What's really exciting here is that you can implement all of the Boolean functions without using a single transistor," he said.
The new chips also have some important characteristics that might make them ideal candidates for use in future space hardware. "You can't just put a regular DRAM into space, because it won't tolerate the environment. The magnetic technology is radiation-hard, and will be a huge improvement on what they're using now," Cowburn said.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70190-0.html?tw=rss.index
Americans will dish out a staggering $13.7 billion on Valentine's Day, according to the National Retail Federation. That's a lot of red roses and chocolate hearts.
But there are some things you should never buy your sweetie on this day of love, such as nose hair trimmers for men or PMS relief pills for women. The retail team ShopInPrivate.com, an online site where you can purchase all sorts of embarrassing products for constipation, warts and hemorrhoids to name a few, has issued a helpful list for lovers that is unlike any other Valentine's Day shopping guide. It tells you what NOT to buy.
The 5 Worst Valentine's Day Gifts for Men:
1. The Razorba back shaver
2. Premature ejaculation cream
3. Fart filters
4. Erectile dysfunction pump
5. Nose hair trimmers
The 5 Worst Valentine's Day Gifts for Women:
1. Weight loss pills
2. PMS relief pills
3. Pregnancy test
4. Hair removal wax
5. Man Catcher Voodoo Kit
If money is no object, and we really mean it's of no concern at all, you could take one of the suggestions of Jim Trippon, a certified public accountant and one of America's foremost authorities on the money habits of self-made millionaires. Here's his list of:
The Top 10 Most Outrageously Expensive Valentine's Day Gifts:
1. Annaliesse yacht, $95 Million
2. Satya Paul tie, $21 Million
3. Scott Henshall dress, $5 Million
4. Caran d'Ache's "La Modernista Diamonds" pen, $265,000
5. White Alba 2 lb. 10 oz. truffle, $112,000
6. Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes (1787) wine, $64,000 per bottle
7. Gucci "Genius Jeans," $3,134
8. Lee Stafford "Couture Haircut," $1,925
9. Golden Opulence Ice Cream Sundae, $1,000
10. Platinum Guild International "I Do" nail polish, $250 per bottle
Trippon's love advice? "Get real and deal with your budget. Be honest with each other about your money habits and come up with a plan to spend it as a couple. It will improve your love life!"
Chocolate and red roses probably sound like the perfect gifts now!
End of support for Windows 98 and Windows Me
Time to go Bye-Bye....
June 30, 2006 will bring a close to Extended Support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me as part of the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy. Microsoft will retire public and technical support, including security updates, by this date.
Existing support documents and content, however, will continue to be available through the Microsoft Support Product Solution Center Web site. This Web site will continue to host a wealth of previous How-to, Troubleshooting, and Configuration content for anyone who may need self-service.
End of support for Windows 98 and Windows Me
Published: January 6, 2006 | Updated: January 18, 2006
June 30, 2006 will bring a close to Extended Support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me as part of the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy. Microsoft will retire public and technical support, including security updates, by this date.
Existing support documents and content, however, will continue to be available through the Microsoft Support Product Solution Center Web site. This Web site will continue to host a wealth of previous How-to, Troubleshooting, and Configuration content for anyone who may need self-service.
Microsoft is retiring support for these products because they are outdated and can expose customers to security risks. We recommend that customers who are still running Windows 98 or Windows Me upgrade to a newer, more secure Microsoft operating system, such as Windows XP, as soon as possible.
Customers who upgrade to Windows XP report improved security, richer functionality, and increased productivity.
Need to upgrade your software?
Learn how to upgrade to Windows XP Professional
p2p news / p2pnet: Peter Jacob's US-based SunnComm MediaMax, and XCP from the UK's First 4 Internet, both flawed Digital Restrictions Management applications, have been written up for ongoing study as models of what not to.
"In the fall of 2005, problems discovered in two Sony-BMG compact disc copy protection systems, XCP and MediaMax, triggered a public uproar that ultimately led to class-action litigation and the recall of millions of discs," say Princeton University's professor Felten and Alex Halderman in their paper Lessons from the Sony CD DRM Episode, published today.
"We present an in-depth analysis of these technologies, including their design, implementation, and deployment. The systems are surprisingly complex and suffer from a diverse array of flaws that weaken their content protection and expose users to serious security and privacy risks. Their complexity, and their failure, makes them an interesting case study of digital rights management that carries valuable lessons for content companies, DRM vendors, policymakers, end users, and the security community."
Felten and Halderman ran draft sections on Felten's Freedom to Tinker blog, asking for ideas and comments.
"We also asked readers to help suggest a title for the paper," they say. "That didn?t work out so well - some suggestions were entertaining, but none were really practical. Perhaps a title of the sort we wanted doesn?t exist."
Their analysis of Sony-BMG?s CD DRM, "carries wider lessons for content companies, DRM vendors, policymakers, end users, and the security community," the say, drawing six main conclusions.
* First, the design of DRM systems is driven strongly by the incentives of the content distributor and the DRM vendor, but these incentives are not always aligned. Where they differ, the DRM design will not necessarily serve the interests of copyright owners, not to mention artists.
* Second, DRM, even if backed by a major content distributor, can expose users to significant security and privacy risks. Incentives for aggressive platform building drive vendors toward spyware tactics that exacerbate these risks.
* Third, there can be an inverse relation between the efficacy of DRM and the user?s ability to defend the computer from unrelated security and privacy risks. The user?s best defense is rooted in understanding and controlling which software is installed on the computer, but many DRM systems rely on undermining the user?s understanding and control.
* Fourth, CD DRM systems are mostly ineffective at controlling uses of content. Major increases in complexity have not increased their effectiveness over that of early schemes, and may in fact have made things worse by creating more avenues for attack. We think it unlikely that future CD DRM systems will do better.
* Fifth, the design of DRM systems is only weakly connected to the contours of copyright law. The systems make no pretense of enforcing copyright law as written, but instead seek to enforce rules dictated by the label?s and vendor?s business models. These rules, and the technologies that try to enforce them, implicate other public policy concerns, such as privacy and security.
* Finally, the stakes are high. Bad DRM design choices can seriously harm users, create major liability for copyright owners and DRM vendors, and ultimately reduce artists? incentive to create.
p2p news view / p2pnet: America Online and Yahoo!'s recent announcement of a new fee-based system for commercial email has generated enormous discussion within the Internet and marketing communities. Supporters argued that the plan represents an innovative marketing approach that will help reduce spam. Detractors, on the other hand, fear that the plan will choke off free speech by limiting the use of email to those who can afford to pay millions in new service fees.
Closer examination of publicly available information regarding the plan reveals that the proposed email fee-structure, commonly referred to as certified email, will actually do little to address spam and may not attract a large client base. Rather, its more significant impact lies in the fact that it is yet another step toward the two-tiered Internet that will ultimately shift new costs to consumers.
With spam now accounting for the majority of all email traffic, the reliability of email has greatly diminished. Where Internet users once trusted that their email correspondence would arrive at their intended destination, layers of spam filters designed to keep spam out of individual inboxes has also had the unfortunate effect of blocking legitimate email.
Large email providers such as AOL and Yahoo!, who together represent more than half of the email addresses on many U.S. consumer email lists, have sought to work with legitimate marketers by employing a "white list" that enables email sent from pre-identified addresses to arrive unhindered at no additional cost.
While that approach has been fairly successful, AOL and Yahoo! have floated plans to replace the white list approach with a certified email system managed by a company called Goodmail. Under the certified email system, marketers would pay a fraction of a cent per email in return for guaranteed delivery that by-passes spam filters (AOL initially indicated that would drop the free white list by the summer, though it backtracked soon after in the face of mounting criticism).
Notwithstanding the link between certified email and spam, it is important to note that it has little to do with reducing spam. Unlike spam, which is unsolicited commercial email, certified email only involves email that recipients have agreed to receive.
In fact, there is a danger that the plan could ultimately hinder the fight against spam, since there is an inverse relationship between the attractiveness of certified email and the effectiveness of spam filtering. In other words, as the accuracy of spam filtering decreases (ie. greater blocking of legitimate email), the desirability of a certified email system that guarantees delivery increases, creating incentives for email providers to reduce the effectiveness of their spam filters in favour of a lucrative certified email system.
While there is good reason for concern about the negative impact of certified email on spam filtering, there is also ample reason to doubt that it will prove popular with marketers. Marketers estimate that approximately 95 percent of legitimate email arrives at its intended destination. If AOL and Yahoo! account for half of consumer email addresses, marketers will have to balance the value of paying to deliver emails for half their list against the loss of 2.5 percent of intended recipients.
If certified email does little to reduce spam and may not present an attractive business model, why all the attention?
There are at least three reasons. First, many non-commercial organizations such as charitable or civil society groups may not have the resources to even engage in a cost-benefit analysis of certified email. For those groups, many of whom depend upon email as their primary method of communication, the shift from low-cost email to certified email could have a debilitating effect.
Second, while consumers enjoy considerable choice among email providers, switching costs remain high since advising contacts of an email address change is a laborious process that invariably results in lost connections and missing emails. In many respects, this market resembles the wireless phone market, where the lack of consumer mobility stems not from a lack of choice but rather from the ongoing delays in number portability that would allow consumers to switch providers but retain their existing cellphone number.
Third, this marks the continuing progression toward increased differentiation - or tiering - of Internet services. Users and websites are accustomed to a straightforward model that involves a flat fee for an established service. In recent months, ISPs and now email providers are challenging those assumptions by moving toward two-tiered pricing, two-tiered access, and two-tiered email delivery.
This movement represents a fundamental reshaping of the Internet. It requires the active involvement of regulatory agencies such as the CRTC and the Competition Bureau in order to ensure that the dominant Internet access and service providers do not harm the long-term potential of the online world.
Correction (Feb. 13/06): Yahoo! has advised that it is not planning, nor has the company ever planned, to replace its white list with a certified mail accreditation program. It is, however, planning to test the Goodmail certified email program in the coming months.
Michael Geist
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist[at]uottawa.ca and is on-line at www.michaelgeist.ca.]
Windows Defender (Free Anti Spyware) Beta 2 released
windows defender Windows Defender (Beta 2) is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it's detected, and a new streamlined interface that minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive. Download details: Windows® Defender (Beta 2)
Windows® Defender (Beta 2) Genuine Windows download
Brief Description
Windows Defender (Beta 2) is a free program that helps you stay productive by protecting your computer against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware and other potentially unwanted software.
Overview
This release includes enhanced features that reflect ongoing input from customers, as well as Microsoft?s growing understanding of the spyware landscape.
Specific features of Windows Defender Beta 2 include:
* A redesigned and simplified user interface ? Incorporating feedback from our customers, the Windows Defender UI has been redesigned to make common tasks easier to accomplish with a warning system that adapts alert levels according to the severity of a threat so that it is less intrusive overall, but still ensures the user does not miss the most urgent alerts.
* Improved detection and removal ? Based on a new engine, Windows Defender is able to detect and remove more threats posed by spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Real Time Protection has also been enhanced to better monitor key points in the operating system for changes.
* Protection for all users ? Windows Defender can be run by all users on a computer with or without administrative privileges. This ensures that all users on a computer are protected by Windows Defender.
* Support for 64-bit platforms, accessibility and localization - Windows Defender Beta 2 also adds support for accessibility and 64-bit platforms. Microsoft also plans to release German and Japanese localized versions of Windows Defender Beta 2 soon after the availability of the English versions. Use WindowsDefenderX64.msi for 64-bit platforms.
Important Notes
* Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta):
Windows Defender (Beta 2) is the final name for Microsoft?s antispyware solution. Current Windows AntiSpyware (Beta 1) customers will be notified automatically to upgrade.
* Globalization:
The current beta is in the English language although we will deliver German and Japanese localized versions. All versions can be installed on any locale but the user interface will only be delivered in these three languages for testing purposes.
* Beta Support Policy:
This is pre-release (beta) software distributed for feedback and testing purposes. Microsoft only provides best effort support through the newsgroups. If Windows Defender (Beta 2) is causing an issue with your system, we recommend removing it by using Add or Remove Programs and even using System Restore if the problem persists.
* Access to Newsgroups:
Although formal support is not offered for this beta, we have provided newsgroups to help get your questions answered.
For Users of Giant AntiSpyware
Current Giant AntiSpyware users with active subscriptions are advised to continue to use their existing software. Click here for more information.
If your subscription has expired, and you choose to download and install Windows Defender (Beta 2), you must first uninstall any previous versions of Giant AntiSpyware.
To remove Giant AntiSpyware:
1. Click Start and then choose Control Panel.
2. Click Add or Remove Programs and then click Remove a Program. (If your control panel is set to Classic View, click the Add or Remove Programs icon.)
3. When the Add or Remove Programs window appears, select the Giant AntiSpyware program from the list.
4. Click Remove.
For Additional Information:
Please see the Release Notes to learn more about known issues with Windows Defender (Beta 2).
Top of page
System Requirements
* Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2
* For more details, see the System Requirements page.
Top of page
Instructions
This download is available running genuine Microsoft Windows. Click the Continue button in the Validation Recommended section above to begin the short validation process. Once validated, you will be returned to this page with specific instructions for obtaining the download.
Spyware Can Make Your PC Lie To You
spy2 ....Apparently, some novel forms of spyware are so good at hiding themselves, that if your PC is infected with these particularly nasty beasties, you can no longer trust anything the PC tells you. These new forms of spyware install themselves at the driver level, which give them a unique ability to "hide data, files, or actions."
Today @ PC World
News, opinion, and links from the PC World staff.
See all Today @ PC World.
Spyware Can Make Your PC Lie To You--Report
Posted by Andrew Brandt
Monday, February 13, 2006, 11:03 AM (PST)
Webroot, the software company that makes the SpySweeper anti-spyware tool, released its latest State of Spyware report (free download) last week. The quarterly reports the company issues summarize the steady technological advancement of spyware makers and their progeny. The report is a wrapup of the worst stuff that happened in spyware in 2005. As you could probably guess, 2005 was the worst year for spyware--and the best year for cybercriminals--ever.
But one small detail in the summary really caught my attention. Apparently, some novel forms of spyware are so good at hiding themselves, that if your PC is infected with these particularly nasty beasties, you can no longer trust anything the PC tells you.
These new forms of spyware install themselves at the driver level, which give them a unique ability to "hide data, files, or actions." The report goes on to say that it's hard to remove spyware that installs itself at the so-called "Ring-0" level, because "no data that Windows returns can be considered reliable."
Great. So, suddenly my laptop is like Neo in the first Matrix movie: Puttering along happily in Windows-land, blissfully unaware that beneath the surface lies a truer 'reality' that is much darker than the world it 'sees.'
I'll take the Red Pill, please.
This brave new world of spyware has its "Agent Smiths" as well, because another increasingly common technique for spyware applications is to attack the anti-spyware forces arrayed against them. This evolution seems to parallel a trend that became common in many malicious viruses about five years ago, where one of the first acts of the virus on a newly-infected host was to look for and disable any of a long list of antivirus programs.
Especially pernicious are keystroke loggers, which capture your passwords as you type them and send them to criminals elsewhere. "Keyloggers are becoming more aggressive and are no longer content to evade [Windows]. Anti-spyware as well as other detection programs are now common targets," the report says.
The report also named the ten worst offenders in the world of adware and spyware. Notably, two of these notorious top ten purport to be anti-spyware tools themselves; Webroot's report labels these apps as "rogue anti-spyware": SpywareStrike and PSGuard both can install themselves on your PC without your consent; PSGuard also redirects your Web searches through its own search engine, and changes your home page, in some instances. Other notable rogue anti-spyware apps listed in the report include SpyAxe, SpySheriff, and WorldAntiSpy. The report also recounts the FTC's recent actions to stop two US companies that were involved in distributing rogue anti-spyware.
(We detailed some examples of rogue anti-spyware apps more than a year ago. Our advice for folks shopping for an anti-spyware solution is to stick to the reputable products made by companies who have established their credentials through independent testing.)
The report also said that large corporations risk not only a PR nightmare, but also could violate one or more federal regulations if even a single PC on their network gets some sort of spyware infestation, and as a result companies are scrambling to contain infections quickly. Despite that, corporations reported a 9 percent increase in the detections of keystroke loggers on business PCs from October, 2005 to the end of the year. Enterprises are also falling victim to more sophisticated, targeted attacks, such as spear phishing and Trojan horse programs custom-built to attack a particular company's network.
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/001448.html
Antsy researcher exposes Internet Explorer flaw months before the fix
ie In a post to the SecuriTeam blog, Gadi Evron warns of a new, unpatched security vulnerability affecting Internet Explorer (IE) 5.01, 5.5, and 6.0. By luring you to a malicious Web page, and enticing you into interacting with it, an attacker can exploit this vulnerability to install software onto your computer using your system privileges....Unfortunately, Evron,who says he's acting per Murphy's instruction, released this warning before Microsoft had time to patch the flaw. According to Murphy's alert, Microsoft has no plans to release a security update to fix this flaw.
Antsy researcher exposes Internet Explorer flaw months before the fix
In a post to the SecuriTeam blog, Gadi Evron warns of a new, unpatched security vulnerability affecting Internet Explorer (IE) 5.01, 5.5, and 6.0. By luring you to a malicious Web page, and enticing you into interacting with it, an attacker can exploit this vulnerability to install software onto your computer using your system privileges. If you have local administrative privileges, the attacker could exploit this flaw to gain complete control of your machine.
Evron didn't discover the new IE flaw. Rather, his blog post credits Matthew Murphy with finding the flaw, and links to a detailed alert. In a nutshell, the flaw stems from IE's inability to properly handle specially crafted drag-and-drop objects on a Web page. To exploit this classic "bait and switch," the attacker crafts a malicious Web page that contains some phony Web object (such as an image, a link, or a scroll bar) that he encourages you to interact with in some way. If you take the bait and interact with the phony Web object, the attacker's Web code quickly and silently switches the phony Web object with a malicious object, causing you to unwittingly execute the malicious object instead. The phony Web object could take the guise of a "punch the monkey" game, an interactive image, or even an innocent-looking scroll bar. However, if you interact with this phony object, you might unwittingly install a trojan (or worse) into your Windows startup folder.
Unfortunately, Evron,who says he's acting per Murphy's instruction, released this warning before Microsoft had time to patch the flaw. According to Murphy's alert, Microsoft has no plans to release a security update to fix this flaw. Instead, they will ship a fix for this issue in Windows XP's upcoming Service Pack (SP) 3 and Windows 2003's upcoming SP2.
Until Microsoft releases a fix, you should apply one or more of the three workarounds Murphy describes in the "Workaround" section of his alert. I'll update you if Microsoft decides to release a fix for this flaw independent of XP SP3 and 2003 SP2. Meanwhile, resist the urge to punch any extraneous monkeys. -- Corey Nachreiner
http://www.watchguard.com/RSS/showarticle.aspx?pack=RSS.IE.dragdrop
p2p news / p2pnet: With the Sony BMG rootkit DRM scandal now the subject of an important new paper, Heise Online is reporting another example of the, "ever-warming relationship of copy protection and rootkit technologies," says Finland's F-Secure.
The German DVD release of the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith, "contains a copy protection mechanism which uses rootkit-like cloaking technolog," says the company's blog.
"The Settec Alpha-DISC copy protection system used on the DVD contains user-mode rootkit-like features to hide itself," it states.
"The system will hide it's own process, but does not appear to hide any files or registry entries. This makes the feature a bit less dangerous, as anti-virus products will still be able to scan all files on the disk. However, as we note in our article on rootkits, it's not that uncommon for real malware to only hide their processes."
If you're worried that your Mr & Mrs Smith may be bugged, Settec has provided an unistaller.
"All components of the Alpha-DISC copy protection are completely removed by the Uninstallation," it promises, adding, "After uninstallation is completed, you can keep the uninstaller on the hard drive for future use or you can delete it."
Do non-German copies also come with Settec Alpha-DISC rootkit DRM?
Stay tuned.
Also See:
new paper - MediaMax, XCP study, February 14, 2006
another example - Sicherheitslücke durch Kinowelt-Kopiersperre, February 13, 2006
F-Secure - About the Hidden Smith Family, February 14, 2006
p2p news / p2pnet: Canada's Nettwerk Music Group, based in Vancouver on the British Columbia mainland, manages some of North America?s best-known artists, including Sarah McLachlan and Avril Lavigne. It's also a member of the Big Four record label cartel's RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
But that doesn't mean the man who runs it, Terry McBride, is a fool. To the contrary, in fact, and like p2pnet, based on Vancouver Island in BC, he's doing his best to help an American family which is being pilloried by the RIAA.
In August, 2005, the RIAA, subpoenaed David Greubel for alleged file sharing, accusing him of having 600 suspect music files on the family computer, but targeting only nine specific songs.
Nettwerk got into it when 15 year-old Elisa Greubel contacted MC Lars, a Nettwerk artist, to say she identified with 'Download This Song,' a track from MC Lars' latest release.
"My family is one of many seemingly randomly chosen families to be sued by the RIAA," Emily emailed MC Lars. "No fun. You can't fight them, trying could possibly cost us millions.
"The line 'they sue little kids downloading hit songs', basically sums a lot of the whole thing up."
But, "Suing music fans isn't the solution, it?s the problem,? says McBride.
He answered a few questions for p2pnet during which he said although he's behind the Greubels, "it's not about winning the case: it's about stopping all the litigation. Period. That's my focus."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
p2pnet: How far are you willing to go with this?
McBride: As far as we need to in order to save the music business from itself.
p2pnet: Have you had any feedback from any of the artists you represent other than MC Lars?
McBride: Yes ... all supportive. All have gotten behind this.
p2pnet: Bob Lefsetz says, " Nettwerk manages such international superstars as Sarah McLachlan, Avri Lavigne and Dido. Along with middle tier acts like the aforementioned Barenaked Ladies, Sum 41 and Jars of Clay. And DEVELOPING acts like Brand New. Isn't this JUST the kind of guy who should be lining up behind Mitch Bainwol and the RIAA?
McBride: Why? .... we're members of the RIAA, but that doesn't mean that I can't disagree with them, which on this subject I do
Lefsetz ...... I mean Terry McBride is IN BED with the major labels. Doesn't Nettwerk function as the A&R for Sony BMG in Canada now??
McBride: Yes. We have and A&R deal to help Artists who want to be on a major label.
p2pnet: Lefsetz also says, "But Terry McBride is drawing the line. Because Terry McBride knows it's about fans, and careers, and what the RIAA is doing is eviscerating both. The fans are the present and the future ... it's been that way for decades, as has the sharing of music, its essential to the fabric." Is that how it is?
McBride: We love what we do. We're creative people with infinite imaginations. Litigation is destructive and has no place in the world.
p2pnet: Have any other production company people said they'd do the same as you?
McBride: Martin Mills from Beggar's in the UK.
p2pnet: What's your personal feeling about p2p, file sharing and the online music scene?
McBride: I think p2p should be a vibrant part of the on-line music scene, not bastardized.
p2pnet: Do you agree that $1 and up is a fair price for a download?
McBride: No higher than $1.
p2pnet: How do you think the labels should be dealing with Elisa and others like her?
McBride: The Labels should stop these actions.
p2pnet: Do you have a message for Mitch Bainwol and his colleagues?
McBride: Yes. Stop litigating. You're ruining my artists' futures.
p2p news / p2pnet: Online censorship in China doesn't much differ from that used in the west, the New York Times has a senior Chinese official responsible for managing the Internet, saying.
In fact, "China is basically in compliance with the international norm," Liu Zhengrong, who supervises Internet affairs for the information office of the Chinese State Council, states, according to the story.
By way of example, he cited powers the Bush administrations had gained under the Patriot Act to monitor Web sites and e-mail communications, "and the deployment of technology called Carnival by the FBI, which allows it to scrutinize huge volumes of e-mail traffic".
It was clear, "any country's legal authorities closely monitor the spread of illegal information," he said. "We have noted that the U.S. is doing a good job on this front."
Objecting to "biased criticisms" of Chinese Internet controls that, "ignored similar restrictions imposed by foreign governments and private companies on their own Web sites," Liu also drew attention to Web sites run by the New York Times and Washington Post that, "reserve the right to delete or block content in reader discussion groups that editors determine to be illegal, harmful or in bad taste,' says the NYT.
"Major U.S. companies do this and it is regarded as normal," Liu said. "So why should China not be entitled to do so?"
Admitting China operates a, "technologically sophisticated firewall to protect the ruling Communist Party against what it treats as Web-based challenges from people inside China and abroad," Liu also claimed Chinese Net uses, "have free rein to discuss many politically sensitive topics and rejected charges that the police have arrested or prosecuted people for using the Internet to circulate views," says the NYT.
"Mr. Liu said there are now 111 million Chinese Web users and that in the past five years, China has expanded the bandwidth available to connect with overseas Web sites nearly 50-fold to 136,000 megabits per second, underscoring its strong commitment to allow its citizens to gather information and interact with people around the world," says the story.
And in a comment echoing another made by a Google spokeswoman, "The number of Web sites that mainland Chinese users cannot access amounts to a 'tiny percentage' of those available abroad," he said.
When it was revealed Google was censoring news from within mainland China by excluding sites, ""We ... considered the amount of information that would be omitted," said the company's Debbie Frost. "In this case it is less than two percent of Chinese news sources. On balance we believe that having a service with links that work and omits a fractional number is better than having a service that is not available at all."
Also See:
New York Times - In Rare Briefing, China Defends Internet Controls, February 14, 2006
omits a fractional number - Google: China search censor, January 25, 2006
=====================
If you're Chinese and you're looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate. It's a free DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent website blocking outside of China.
Download it here and feel free to copy the zip and host it yourself so others can download it.
The sad, pathetic tale of how the content industry is trying to make the PC as unfriendly as possible to high definition content has another chapter. In August I told you about the unfortunate decisions by the HD DVD and Blu-ray groups that would ultimately spell disaster for owners of existing LCD displays; without support for HDCP, you probably will not be able to view HD content from the studios on your PC (or TV, for that matter). The take-away was simple: don't buy a new display unless it supports HDCP.
Users worried about "future-proof" purchasing options also started to think about other components in their PC arsenal. Video cards, for example, would also need to support HDCP, and so many conscientious buyers thought that buying cards with support for HDCP would mean that their cards could carry them into the future. Unfortunately, they were wrong. For while many video cards?including offerings powered by ATI and NIVIDIA GPUs?advertise themselves as having support for HDCP, they don't necessarily support the next-generation of HD content from the studios. How can this be?
FiringSquad caused quite a ruckus when earlier this week they reported that current retail cards do not and future cards will not support HDCP. The good news is that this report is only half true. With regards to shipping cards, they are correct: no matter what a box's feature list may say, no video card supports HDCP fully at this time. Why? They have not been completely programmed. Until the specifications for the access control system are completely finished, implementing prottected HD support in the video card is impossible. For those of you who have been following the technological follies of the content owners that want to usher in this new era of HD content, then you know this is nothing new: AACS, the next-gen access control scheme that will be used by both HD DVD and Blu-ray, is still not finalized. That's right: with players and products being hyped as "just around the corner," the cornerstone of the roll-out still isn't finished. Still.
Video cards that support HDCP will have to be programmed with encryption keys while they are still in manufacturing. ATI confirmed to me that it will not be possible to patch or otherwise update cards without keys through software. Thus, any card already in the marketplace will never support HDCP, no matter what it says on the box.
The future will not be so bleak, however. ATI's PR manager, John Swinimer, told me that that retail cards will eventually be available once the technological specifications are finalized. Thus, reports that HDCP per se will kill the DIY market are exaggerations: within a year it should be possible to buy HDCP cards at the retailer of your choice.
Nevertheless, there is still plenty of ire reserved for the like of ATI and NVIDIA, both of which have done little to inform consumers that "HDCP support" means something other than, well, future-proof support at this time. Talking to anonymous sources close to the scene, the fiasco has resulted primarily from communications problems between the licensing authority, the access control spec people, and everyone else. In short, it sounds as though the next-gen security spec is a moving target. I must say that I find my source credible, if only because we've seen the exact same ambiguity from the Blu-ray camp when talking about mandatory managed copy.
A future so bright, you'll have to wear HDCP-complaint shades
We're in the midst of a a top-down, all-points-covered attempt to lock down every part of the HD viewing experience. In a nutshell, the content industry wants to see video encrypted end-to-end and passed only among approved devices that obey content access rules defined by the industry. This is not limited to the PC. Our in-depth primer on CableCARD revealed that the lock-down will also come to include the video streams from cable providers, too. In both cases, we see a disturbing trend: not only is the technology all about locking down the content, but the implementation is becoming locked down as well. For example, while CableCARD has been heralded as the great breakthrough that will allow for Home Theatre PC nirvana, the fact that CableLabs has to certify entire machine designs means that the do-it-yourself market is likely out of luck.
I suspect that the content industry may be in for a big, nasty surprise when all of this truly hits the public in the face. Never before has the rollout of the "next big thing" been so encumbered with built-in obsolescence, user-unfriendliness, and hypocrisy. Groans the world over will be heard when early adopters learn that their TVs won't play Blu-ray movies. Folks who bought computers recently will be disappointed when they learn that their hard-earned money couldn't buy them end-to-end support for HD content playback.
When you tell so many people that their electronics won't do what they should do?what they paid for them to do?many of them are not going to like it. The content industry is going to walk away from this with a certain amount of egg on their face and a fat stamp of "greed" burned into their foreheads. And a few will will realize the ultimate inanity of it all: that while the studio's HD content won't play on their TV or their computers, the HD content put out by the pirates will.
"Trusted" storage specs nearly ready for your hard drive
2/14/2006 3:50:13 PM, by Jeremy Reimer
Microsoft co-founded the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) along with AMD, HP, IBM, Infineon, Intel and Sun Microsystems back in 2003, re-assembling and re-naming the group out of 1999's Trusted Computer Platform Alliance (TCPA). At the time, there was a mountain of coverage concerning Microsoft's proposed Palladium initiative, which was an enormous effort by the software company to change the very nature of the PC platform, from one where almost any sort of software was allowed to run unhindered to an environment where things could be more strictly controlled.
The reaction from many people was one of shell shock, and similarly to the evolution of that term, Palladium morphed into the more unpronounceable Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB) and then simply Trusted Computing (TC). Along the way, some of the more grandiose plans for implementing Palladium fell by the wayside.
However, the TCG did not go away, and little pieces of the TC platform began slowly sneaking into computers. Intel received tremendous negative publicity when it shipped Pentium chips with unique identifier IDs (although nobody seemed to worry about unique MAC addresses in Ethernet cards) and was forced to leave the identifier disabled by default. Later, Intel released what was known as its "Fritz" chip, later renamed TPM (Trusted Platform Module). Many new computers, including some Lenovo ThinkPads and Apple's new Macbook Pros, come with TPM built into the chipset. TPM uses a hardware cryptography engine to generate and verify encryption keys (at least 2048 bits according to the latest Intel documentation). This forms the core of what is known as a "secure path" for the user's data, but other hardware needs to co-operate with the TPM in order to be fully trusted. This is where the idea of a "trusted hard drive" comes in.
The new hard drives will allow the creation of "trusted storage units," areas of the drive where only approved applications will be able to read and write data. Inside the hard drive, a trusted (and hidden) partition will store the keys and tables defining what rights the user or the host platform has to access the data. The drive itself does not have to be encrypted, but it can be. The hidden partition will not be stored in the disk structure itself, but rather on memory and logic chips that are traditionally used for low-level management functions. Essentially, the CPU tells the hard drive "yes, I have the key showing I am approved to access the protected area" and the hard drive replies "yes, and I am the hard drive that has the protected area you want to access."
"The work's been going on for a couple of years now," Willett said in an interview. "We're shooting for the end of March, possibly early April for an internal spec. It's all of the hard drive companies, the flash people?all the technical guys are involved. We're here today to let the rest of the world know what we're doing."
Possible uses of the technology include corporate authorization of secure areas on removable hard drives. Such authorization keys could then be revoked if the hard drive is lost, or stolen.
The debate over Trusted Computing is complex and often emotionally charged. Everyone agrees that privacy is a good thing, which is why encryption software has been made part of personal computer operating systems for some time now: users can already encrypt their file systems in Windows and OSX. The creation of TC takes the existing technology of encryption and makes it more pervasive and embedded in hardware. Rather than being simply about security, TC seems more about control. Intel insists that one of the fundamental precepts of TC is that it is "opt-in," meaning that users must activate the feature and can always choose to purchase computer hardware that comes without TPM (although Macintosh buyers may find that the latter is no longer possible). TC is also a haven for Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, and content providers may find the combination irresistible. Already, next generation high-definition video content is requiring a trusted HDCP-compliant monitor and a trusted video card. Is this all part of an inevitable transformation of the PC platform?
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060214-6178.html
HAMACHI..........Simple and sweet! With Hamachi you can organize two or more computers with an internet connection into their own virtual network for direct secure communication. LAN over the Internet. Zero-configuration VPN. Secure peer-to-peer. Access computers remotely. Use Windows File Sharing. Play LAN games. Run private Web or FTP servers. Communicate directly. Stay connected.....(free).....GO THERE!
What it is
With Hamachi you can organize two or more computers with an Internet connection into their own virtual network for direct secure communication.
Hamachi is fast, secure and simple. It is also free.
What's in it for me
Think - LAN over the Internet.
Think - Zero-configuration VPN.
Think - Secure peer-to-peer.
Access computers remotely. Use Windows File Sharing. Play LAN games. Run private Web or FTP servers. Communicate directly. Stay connected.
Technology
Hamachi is a zero-configuration virtual private networking application with an open security architecture and NAT-to-NAT traversal capabilities.
Hamachi is the first application to mix seemingly unrelated networking technologies in one powerful package to deliver an unprecedented level of peer-to-peer connectivity. More ...
Security
Hamachi is secure. All Hamachi communications are encrypted and authenticated with industry-standard algorithms and protocols. Nobody will be able to see what two Hamachi peers are talking about. Not even us.
However what is equally important - Hamachi security architecture is completely open meaning that its detailed description is available for the review to anyone interested. More ...
Ease of Use
A special effort went into designing and polishing Hamachi user interface. The result is sleek, simple and intuitive, while still very much functional. Everything you need, nothing you don't.
Hamachi software contains no spyware, bannerware or any other -ware unrelated to its purpose. And it never will.
stay connected, vpn evolved, got nat, a product of applied networking
RASTERBATOR.......... The Rasterbator is a web service which creates huge, rasterized images from any picture. The rasterized images can be printed and assembled into extremely cool looking posters up to 20 meters in size.....(free).....GO THERE! http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/
If you don't like to queue, download the standalone version of The Rasterbator!
The Rasterbator is a web service which creates huge, rasterized images from any picture. The rasterized images can be printed and assembled into extremely cool looking posters up to 20 meters in size.
The Rasterbator is very easy to use. You can either upload a file from your computer or use any file that is publicly available in the Internet. After you have cropped the image and selected a desired size, the rasterbated image will be sent to you as an easily printable pdf file.
Using The Rasterbator requires that you have Macromedia Flash Player 7 and Adobe Reader (or other pdf viewer).
The Rasterbator uses the excellent iText# library in pdf generation. We extend our gratitude to the development team!
http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/
* 18:16 14 February 2006
* NewScientist.com news service
* Barry Fox
For over 30 years, Barry Fox has trawled through the world's weird and wonderful patent applications, uncovering the most exciting, bizarre or even terrifying new ideas. His column, Invention, is exclusively online. Scroll down for a roundup of previous Invention articles.
Viper vision
Vipers "see" by sensing the infrared radiation emitted by the heat of their prey using sensitive organs on their head. Inventor John Stapleton of New Jersey, US, thinks same trick could enable the visually impaired to better sense the world around them.
Stapleton's device uses an ordinary digital camera light sensor to capture a scene which it converts into a mosaic of light spots. An array of infrared LEDs then transforms this mosaic into a pattern of heat points which can be projected onto a user's forehead.
As the human forehead is very sensitive to temperature change, Stapleton believes subjects will be able to translate the heat projection into a coarse image in their mind. The technique could also be used to relay Braille messages, he says.
The patent contains more theory that practical test results but says initial trials make the idea look hopeful, affordable and non-invasive, unlike retinal implant surgery.
Read the viper-vision patent here.
Anthrax hairbrush
Since the anthrax-by-mail attacks five years ago, post rooms have been using chemical swabs to check suspect packages. But workers taking swabs risk contamination and swabs can easily be ineffective, picking up other muck that can mask dangerous particles.
Now researchers at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in California, US, have come up with a handheld tool, shaped like a hairbrush, to make mail checks quicker, safer and more accurate. At the top of the "brush" are a cluster of brass pins and four solid legs. The pins are very thin ? around twice the width of a human hair ? and slightly shorter than each of the legs.
An operator only has to hold the brush against a suspect surface and press a button to activate it. The legs then vibrate at 10 kilohertz, while the pins are electrically charged with 100 volts. The vibration should shake any anthrax particles free from the surface while the charge makes them to jump up and stick to the pin tips.
The brush can then be placed into a docking station, switched off and shaken. Any attached particles should fall down onto a test bed where they can be analysed carefully.
Read the anthrax-detector patent here.
Feel the force
Touch-sensitive screens are now commonplace, on phones, PDAs, GPS devices and even remote controls. They let you scroll through text or over a map by simply touching the screen and dragging your finger across it.
But doing much more usually involves regular icons, which can be fiddly. Philips has patented an idea that promises to solve this problem, by making the screen pressure-sensitive as well as touch-sensitive. The idea is to use sensors to register any increase in fluid or gas pressure at particular points beneath a screen's surface.
Pressing harder on a map could increase the scale to reveal more detail. Increasing the pressure on a display feature could make it grow in size for more accurate finger control. And, pressing forcefully on the name of a TV programme could reveal further information about the show. Philips believes it should also make devices easier to operate with just one hand.
Read the force-sensitive screen patent here.
Read previous Invention columns:
Exploding ink, the Moody media player, the Spy-diver killer, preventing in-flight interference, the inkjet-printer pen, sonic watermarks, the McDownload, Hot-air plane, Landmine arrows, Soldiers obeying odours, Coffee beer, wall-beating bugging, Eyeball electronics, phone jolts, Personal crash alarm, Talking tooth, Shark shocker, Midnight call-foiler, Burning bullets, A music lover's dream, Magic wand for gamers, The phantom car, Phone-bomb hijacking, Shocking airport scans, Old tyres to printer ink and Eye-tracking displays.
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It sounds like a perfect parlor game for baby boomers suddenly confronting their own mortality: What are your chances of dying within four years? Researchers have come up with 12 risk factors to try to answer that for people over age 50.
This is one game where you want a low score. Zero to 5 points says your risk of dying in four years is less than 4 percent. With 14 points, your risk rises to 64 percent.
Just being male gives you 2 points. So does having diabetes, being a smoker, and getting pooped trying to walk several blocks.
Points accrue with each four-year increment after age 60.
The test doesn't ask what you eat, but it does ask if you can push a living room chair across the floor.
The quiz is designed "to try to help doctors and families get a firmer sense for what the future may hold," to help plan health care accordingly, says lead author Dr. Sei Lee, a geriatrics researcher at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who helped develop it.
"We know that patients and families want more prognostic information from doctors," Lee said. "It's a very natural human question of, 'What's going to happen to me?' We also know that doctors are very cautious about giving prognostic information because they don't want to be wrong."
This test is roughly 81 percent accurate and can give older people a reasonable idea of their survival chances, Lee and his colleagues say.
Of course, it isn't foolproof. Other experts note it ignores family history and it's much less meaningful for those at the young end of the spectrum.
The researchers even warn, Don't try this at home, saying a doctor can help you put things into perspective.
"Even if somebody looks at their numbers and finds they have a 60 percent risk of death, there could be other mitigating factors," said co-author and VA researcher Dr. Kenneth Covinsky.
There are things you can do to improve your chances, he notes, such as quitting smoking or taking up exercise.
The test is based on data involving 11,701 Americans over 50 who took part in a national health survey in 1998. Funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, the researchers analyzed participants' outcomes during a four-year follow-up. They based their death-risk survey on the health characteristics that seemed to predict death within four years.
Their report appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Donald Jurivich, geriatrics chief at the University of Illinois at Chicago, took the test and got a nice low score. Jurivich is 52. He said he'd feel better about his score if both his parents hadn't died prematurely.
He praised the survey for measuring people's ability to function Â? such as being able to move a piece of furniture or keep track of expenses Â? signs that can be more telling than other health factors.
Willie Hood Jr., 74, a patient of Jurivich's, pooh-poohed the test "because I don't know when I'm going to die and nobody else" does either.
"My grandmother, they said she wouldn't last the night away, she lived three more years," Hood said.
Dr. George Lange, a 57-year-old internist at Columbia-St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, faulted the test for not measuring blood pressure or cholesterol. Lange got a healthy low score on the test, too, but he's overweight. He was surprised he didn't get points for that.
In fact, that's one of the most puzzling aspects of the test. People with a body-mass index of less than 25 Â? which includes normal weight people Â? get a point while those who are overweight aren't penalized.
Covinsky, one of the test designers, said that BMI measurement includes underweight people Â? those who have lost weight because of illness, a risk factor for the elderly.
As to obesity, Lee noted there are more points for diabetes and for difficulty walking several blocks Â? both associated with excess weight.
The researchers think their mortality predictor might be a useful tool in the "pay for performance" trend that is part of the nation's health care system. Medicare and other insurers are increasingly basing reimbursement rates on how patients fare, said Covinsky.
"One health plan can look better just by cherry-picking health care patients" and accepting only the most robust patients, Covinsky said. This test could give a more accurate assessment of health plans, he said, so that "you can actually see which ones are taking sicker patients and compare that" when measuring performance.
Privacy and anonymity
privacy1 Privacy and anonymity on the Internet are as important as they are difficult to achieve. Here are some of the the current issues we face, along with a few suggestions on how to be more anonymous. Online privacy issues are in the news every week now. This is good for us, because when it's newsworthy and notable it means people still care about the privacy of their personal information in some fundamental and important way. Privacy on the Internet (or rather, a lack thereof) has been with us for ages, but as technology converges we are all forced to make some important new choices about what we are willing to disclose. Let's start with a few examples.
Privacy and anonymity
Kelly Martin, 2006-02-14
Privacy and anonymity on the Internet are as important as they are difficult to achieve. Here are some of the the current issues we face, along with a few suggestions on how to be more anonymous.
Online privacy issues are in the news every week now. This is good for us, because when it's newsworthy and notable it means people still care about the privacy of their personal information in some fundamental and important way. Privacy on the Internet (or rather, a lack thereof) has been with us for ages, but as technology converges we are all forced to make some important new choices about what we are willing to disclose. Let's start with a few examples.
Recent events have found the Electronic Freedom Foundation warning users not to use Google Desktop's new "search across computers" option, which stores a user's indexed data on Google servers for up to 30 days. It's making headlines, but it's just the tip of the iceberg. In recent weeks we've also heard about government attempts to subpoena information from Yahoo, Microsoft and Google. Perhaps a subpoena for all the files indexed on your Google Desktop is not that far away. Then there are the wiretaps in the U.S. by those three-letter agencies, which we're just hearing about now. First reported by the New York Times, these were wiretaps on U.S. citizens that were sometimes done without requiring court approval at all. I don't know about you, but even when I'm not doing something wrong (which is most of the time), I get very nervous when I hear about privacy issues popping up in this way.
This is on top of all the old news that barely makes headlines anymore: botnet Trojans controlling access to your computer's data and stealing your identity; rampant spyware infections that have been with us for years and are sometimes quite nasty; the fact that only about a third of the public even know what spyware is; and finally, there's even the occasional military breach that exposes the personal information of people who probably value their privacy very much.
Where are we headed with online privacy? Well, perhaps you should publish your darkets secrets in a public blog right now and get it over with. The fact is, we haven't had much, or any, privacy online in quite a while. In the search for privacy, what do we have to do to become anonymous on the Internet?
Privacy starts with you
Many people, and security people in particular, value their privacy. We don't like to be tracked and followed. Most of the time this desire does not stem from any malicious intent, but rather from the knowledge of what others who are more malicious than us can do with this information. Our day starts at the office: nothing is private on your office computer, and most people know this already. It is a corporate asset, a tool to conduct business that can (and perhaps, should) be searched at any time. Fine, let's move on to the home computer then. At home one can do "other" things with his computer besides just work.
Most people start with their local system - clearing out their Web browser cache, recent URL lists and more with tools of yesteryear like TweakUI. But as broadband connections have become inexpensive and pervasive, we are increasingly being tracked by our IP addresses at home. If you have high speed Internet at home, odds are your IP address is relatively static now - cable and DSL modems are often assigned the same IP address for up to a year. Website owners can track your repeat visits much more easily - what time you arrived, how long you stayed, and how often you come back. Nothing new here. Many of us disable cookies in our browsers too, but that semi-static IP address at home can have just as big an impact on your privacy as cookies do.
Often the most anonymous place to surf the web is still with a laptop at a coffee shop with free WiFi, or at an Internet cafe. But one day even these places will require a fingerprint for authentication before you're granted access, and you'll have to worry about your fingerprints too. For now however, we have other concerns.
Big name privacy
The big names in the Internet world already know quite a bit about us. When Google bought Dejanews and spawned Google Groups, they bought an archive of almost everything written on the Usenet since the very early days. The Internet Archive keeps old copies of your blog or webpage, so even things you've written about and deleted are still there. Google Mail had to deal with all sorts of privacy issues when it first appeared, because they (almost) never delete any of your email. And now we have the venerable Google Desktop - which, when shared between computers, has your data stored on Google servers for 30 days. Data that might subpoenaed by someone without your knowledge, a particularly dire fact for those of us who don't even live in the U.S.
I don't mean to be so hard on Google. They're just an easy target, because they're the new juggernaut. What about Yahoo and MSN? Have you read their respective privacy policy (Yahoo! / MSN) and terms of service (Yahoo! / MSN)? Do you trust them with your data? I for one am glad that I don't live in China. Google's corporate mantra of "do no evil" might be the most reassuring of the three, but this data can still be subpoenaed without your knowledge.
Meanwhile, the trend on the desktop is to index all your local data into a fast Internet-style search. Apple's Spotlight on OS X and the Google Desktop have done this for some time; by the end of the year your new Windows Vista system will be able to index all your documents and data too. But imagine when a system like this becomes infected with a Trojan - and that index becomes an easy source for a hacker to search for keywords like "tax," or "credit," or "bank." While it's true the data was always there, it's also becoming more accessible.
Little name privacy
There are all sorts of things we can do to take back our privacy and in doing so, become more anonymous. Some are cumbersome and difficult to do; others are not. For the purpose of this column I'll focus primarily on Web access and surfing, because this seems to interest people the most. On the Web, there are always logs and those logs point back to your IP address.
I've used SSH port forwarding for years to divert my IP address to somewhere else, but it doesn't add any additional privacy because we (presumably) own the machine we're forwarding to, and therefore a quick lookup of the IP address come back to us. Anonymous Web and SOCKS proxies are commonplace, but they are often slow, unreliable, and sporadic. Plus, you must assume that the freely available ones are all logging everything, regardless of what you read, and that the commercial ones that swear they'll never sell your data may or may not be trustworthy - perhaps, but remember that your web surfing history may still be requested by someone tracking you (and thereby have this date given out, without your knowledge) once again.
Using proxies on compromised machines masks your IP address, but it's entirely illegal. If this is what you're using, you deserve to be caught. Just remember that the compromised machine might very well be a honeypot, tracking you back to your source IP.
If broadband access in the home keeps your IP address semi-static, what about using dialup? We can have pre-paid dialup Internet access via prepaid cards. I see ads for them all over the subway where I live, and for a moment I thought they might give me some anonyomity. Not a chance. You're still traced back to the CallerID in your home or hotel room, though admittedly every time you connect you'll have a new IP. That might been good enough for most of us.
You could take this one step further and setup your own PBX like the free Asterix PBX to mask your CallerID, and then use the prepaid Internet card. While it's entertaining to imagine people going to just extremely, that all seems a little excessive (and non-trivial) to me.
And then there are the liveCDs that help provide some form of anonymity. My favorite today is the Anonym.OS liveCD introduced at SchmooCom recently. Based on the secure-by-default OpenBSD operating system, it goes to the extent of randomizing your (wired or wireless) MAC address on boot, configures Tor onion routing, provides a simple graphical interface, and more. It's a nice step in the right direction. Including these features on a liveCD provides a high level of anonymity and it's a welcome relief. I've installed Tor on my home system as well, but find it rather intrusive - having a liveCD helps avoid that issue. Either way, with Tor your apparent public IP address on a website will appear to keep changing. One thing puzzled me about Anonym.OS, though: I'm curious why a simple tool like netstat, normally included in a base install of OpenBSD, aren't installed. I still like to know what's going on whenever I can.
I think the final frontier is still wireless. If you need a cheap, easy-to-borrow IP address that isn't yours (but is entirely legitimate), there is always one available inside a WiFi coffee shop, an Internet cafe, or your local public library. Surf with a cappuccino, along with everyone else. Socialize a bit. Your IP address is a cup of beans. When combined with a system like Anonym.OS, these are good and mostly anonymous options for most people.
What's my IP?
Often an IP address is the only piece of information available to a webmaster to track your visits - assuming you've disabled cookies in your browser and don't mind SessionIDs. Web logs can be subpoenaed too. Did you download Nmap 4.01 recently? My understanding is that Fyodor has had an effective log retention policy for when the feds come knocking, but what about everyone else? Do you use Nessus? Ethereal? Metasploit? Have you tried the latest (and excellent) Back Track pen-test liveCD? These are common tools used for legitimate purposes. Most of us couldn't care less that these downloads are tracked back to our IP. But it's still a useful excercise to go through: finding out how easy it is to map your IP address to an approximate physical location.
Most of us don't have malicious intent, so what about tracking the attackers who do? In the news, the physical location of an IP address used to attack a service is often used to attribute blame to certain country or region of the world. I suspect these addresses are rarely the real origin of the attack, but it's a start. There are dozens of "show my IP" services out there already to find out your public IP address while you're behind a proxy. Need more information? Sometimes a simple WHOIS or dig lookup doesn't suffice. To help find an approximate physical location there's the free IP address locator and the IP-to-country database - both useful tools. Or you can find IP blocks listed by country of origin, in CIDR format if you prefer. The latter is useful if you run web services and receive repeated attacks from countries that don't need access to those services.
As with anything, all these tools can be used for good or evil. "Do no evil," is a mantra that most of us should agree with. I'm happy it was popularized by Google. Sometimes we simply desire to be anonymous for no other reason than to be anonymous, and so that others can't track us. No malicious intent at all. But finding privacy on the Internet is not always so easy to do.
Making a choice
Most of us in IT have a certain sense of paranoia about privacy and security - often with good reason. During my own exercise to find out how hard it is to become anonymous, I've come up with a rather simple conclusion: it's all about deciding what amount of privacy and personal information I am willing to give up, in exchange for the goods and services I'm looking to have. As for me, I think I'll keep visiting public WiFi hotspots and use those liveCDs for some time to come.
