Tuesday, April 27

As reported here last Friday, the CIH (AKA Chernobyl) virus activated on Monday, April 26, the thirteenth anniversary of the Chernobyl meltdown. The virus erased hard drives on infected PCs and in many cases destroyed the motherboard BIOS.

CNN, quoting CERT sources, says that the virus didn't affect very many computers and was no big deal. CNN readers disagreed.

Data Communications tested large-scale Remote Access Systems from 3Com, Ascend, Assured Access, Cisco, Lucent, and Nortel. They discovered wide variations in call completion rates and the time needed to complete a connection.

Cable Labs released the specification for DOCSIS 1.1. The new version of the cable modem standard provides more security and offers hooks that cable companies can use to guarantee available bandwidth to customers.

PC World has named its Top Ten Modem Utilities for Windows.

Web cams I spent an afternoon with my roommate looking for something worthwhile on web cams. What we found were pictures of people sitting at their computers, people in college sitting at their computers, and people in Scotland sitting at their computers. The big thing in web cams is "sexy" peekaboo cams. By getting a 24 hour look at Anna or Jenni's life, you could see anything, and I mean anything: Jenni flossing her teeth, Jenni putting in her contacts, or even Jenni sitting at her computer. It's better than Erosion Cam, but not by much. I had more fun at Sexy Jim, a spoof on "sexy" web cam sites. (Jim has a brain, too, so don't forget to visit Ask Jim for advice.) My friend Reed Wade has one of the better, or at least funnier, web cam-equipped home pages. Not surprising, since this is the same guy who invented the vegetable of the day and the late, lamented Hot Little Therm (co-created with his friend Bob Manchek).

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Friday, April 30

InternetNews reports that Prodigy is asking customers not to take its unlimited plan too literally. The old school ISP has begun emailing warnings to customers who use too many hours.

A Taiwanese college has identified former student Chen Ing-hau as the author of the CIH virus, also known as the Chernobyl virus. The college reports that Chen was disciplined but not expelled when he wrote the virus last year.

Zero-Knowledge Systems, a Canadian security firm, has demonstrated a way to obtain Pentium III serial numbers through software running on a web page.

Do you know how to install network cards? Your local cable modem company may want to hire you to do installs. A lack of trained technicians is just one of the hurdles that cablecos are overcoming.

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