Tuesday, October 12

Jube Shiver of the Los Angeles Times looks at privacy issues surrounding workplace email. In the US, companies can read employee email stored on company computers. California is considering legislation requiring companies to inform employees of their email policies.

Brian Williams of InternetNews.com reports on problems with AOL's 5.0 software. The problems affect users who also dial into their company or ISP, or who have a LAN connection.

Gary Krakow of MSNBC reviews his first week with DSL.

Network Computing has a review of ten branch-office ISDN routers.

Internet security

I use Telnet daily for checking my email and administering 56K.COM's web server, so I'm always sad to hear about ISPs dropping the option of Telnet access. I recently ran across Cam Internet's "Telnet access vs. security for all," a discussion of their decision to disable Telnet following a break-in while they weigh their options. Their points are well-balanced and sensible: is it fair for Cam's 12,000 customers to endure security risks and extra costs to accommodate a few hundred Telnet users? If not, is it fair to charge Telnet users additional fees? I'd be interested in hearing opinions and solutions from ISPs and ISP customers.

AOL user passwords are being stolen using the old strangers-with-candy trick: the AOL member receives a software program in their email, then downloads it and runs it (d'oh!). The program scans the hard drive for the AOL password and sends it back to the person who sent out the program.

George Gunski has discovered another Microsoft security bug: the ability to read a file on your hard drive via a web page or HTML email. The bug is known to affect Windows 95 and IE 4.0, and may affect Windows 98, NT, and IE 5.0. One saving grace: the exploit can only read the file if the file's name and path are known.

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Friday, October 15

Reviews

Jennifer Sullivan reviews the Diamond Multimedia Rio 500 MP3 player for Wired News.

I've talked about cell phone/PDA convergence for a while. Once of the first attempts to market is the Qualcomm pdQ, a cross between a Palm III and a PCS phone. Palmstation.com has a review with reader feedback.

Macworld reviews the base G4 400 model and sorts out the G4 models.

News

The FCC has reiterated its earlier position that the government should stay away from regulating broadband Internet access, such as cable modems and DSL.

A copycat Melissa virus called VBS.Freelink promises a list of porn sites, then spreads via email and IRC.

Stephen Trilling, director of research for anti-virus software maker Symantec, explains where computer viruses come from, and discusses prevention.

Due to chip shortages, Apple announced it would cut the speed of its high-end G4 machines by 50 MHz, but would not cut the price. On Thursday, Apple reversed its decision, and will honor earlier orders. Customers who ordered the 500 MHz G4 will have the choice of getting the system they ordered, or accepting a slower system and taking a discount of $350. Other models will be delivered as ordered. MacInTouch has ongoing coverage.

October 18 news update

The Apple G4 story gets stranger. ZDNet reports that Apple has reversed its reversed decision, and will not honor G4 back orders after all. Meanwhile, an Apple web page - in an announcement dated October 18 - says that Apple will honor the back orders.

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