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Tuesday, July 11
SBC has announced a new install-it-yourself
DSL plan to speed up DSL rollout. Installation consists
of installing filters on the line, configuring the modem and
installing any necessary software and network cards.
The Federal Communications Commission is collecting
public
comment on phone company conduct and service. Complaints
can be filed on the
FCC web site or by calling 800-CALL-FCC.
CNET
reviews Internet Explorer 5.5, due out in the next
month. New features include print preview and a built-in
HTML editing toolkit.
Computer security and privacy
The Federal Trade Commission has filed suit against
Toysmart for selling
its customer database in violation of its privacy
policies. Toysmart went
out of business in May and is selling off assets to pay
creditors. Privacy groups are concerned that other
bankrupt dot-coms may sell off customer information as
part of their going-out-of-business sales. Toysmart is a
member of TRUSTe, a voluntary industry organization that is
supposed to ensure that sites honor their privacy policies.
Wired reports on people
cheating pay-to-surf web sites.
Counterpane and Lloyd's of London are joining forces to
offer hacking
insurance.
Friday, July 14
Macworld
Expo begins July 19, with Steve Jobs delivering the
keynote address. The
rumor mill is already working swing shifts, with rumors
or iMacs with 17-inch monitors and the wildest rumor of all:
a
buttonless mouse. The new rodent will use rocking
motions instead of buttons to register clicks.
On Tuesday, we noted that Internet Explorer 5.5 would be
released in the next month. Internet
Explorer 5.5 was released Wednesday, making our
prediction technically accurate if not prescient. Web
standards advocates are criticizing IE 5.5's lack of
adherence to W3C standards, and its introduction of new
DHTML tags.
Take that! cable companies. ESPN, Comedy Central and
C-SPAN are testing plans with mPhase to broadcast
their TV programming over DSL-equipped phone lines.
Network
Computing reviews wireless Ethernet systems from
BreezeCom, Cisco, Compaq, Enterasys, Farallon, Intermec,
Lucent, NoWires Needed, 3Com, Zoomax and Zoom. The article
is informative, and includes a summary of "Top
10 Things to Knox About Wireless."
Sprint
and WorldCom have called off their merger after the US
filed suit to block the merger. European authorities were
likely to attempt a similar block.
Computer security and privacy
The FBI Tuesday revealed the existence of Carnivore,
a system for "Internet wiretapping." Carnivore is
installed at an ISP or other organization and scans the
entire mail stream to find "the meat" - email to or from a
suspect for whom the FBI has a wiretap order. In the
process, however, Carnivore scans the headers of all
customers or employees, leading to protests from privacy
groups, and statements
from some ISPs that they won't cooperate. The FBI says
Carnivore has been used in less than 100 cases. US Attorney
General Janet
Reno has said her office will review Carnivore.
Microsoft has admitted that Hotmail
unintentionally sends users' email addresses to advertisers
under some circumstances. When a Hotmail user clicks on
a banner ad, in some cases the user's Hotmail username is
included in the referring URL string, where it can be
extracted by advertisers.
Kevin
Mitnick can take jobs in the computer and lecture industries
after all. His parole officer reversed his previous
decision, which would have resigned convicted hacker Mitnick
to minimum wage jobs. Mitnick still isn't allowed to use a
computer.
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