Three indicted in U.S. spam crackdown: "Three people have been indicted in Arizona on federal charges of violating the antispam law."
I Love this! It is about damn time!

Three people accused of sending massive amounts of spam face possible prison sentences after being indicted by a grand jury in Arizona and accused of violating the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003 and other charges, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
Named in the indictment are Jennifer R. Clason, 32, and James R. Schaffer, 39, of Arizona, and Jeffrey A. Kilbride, 39, of California. The three are accused of sending unsolicited e-mails that advertised pornographic Web sites, the Justice Department said in a statement. They could make money from commissions that the Web sites paid in return for directing traffic to their sites, the statement said.

Microsoft begins test of new Windows file system: "Blog: Microsoft on Monday posted the first test version of a new Windows file system. The company made the test version...
As I have suspected all along! MS will deliver most of the Vista's functionality by the time that it is released!

Zotob suspect under arrest: "Atilla Ekici is arrested in Turkey, under suspicion of having created both the Zotob and Mytob worms.Zotob suspect under arrest
Turkish police escort Atilla Ekici (center) to a court in Ankara, Aug. 26, 2005. Ekici is suspected of having created the Mytob and Zotob worms. A second suspect was arrested in Morocco.

How Microsoft Will Die! Do you believe this?: "

Longhorn, by the features

WFS: Cut
.NET Framework: Cut
MONAD: Cut
Integrated Search: Cut
Avalon: Who knows?
Indigo: Who knows?
IE7: You can repaint a Kia, lower it down, put rims on it and think you are…"

Macintosh: Intel Inside! Now Improved With Delicious DRM: "

The story hit the ‘net with the all the raw fury of a F5 tornado reducing trailer park after trailer park to so much Formica and splinters of bad furniture. The event was, of course, the revelation that the developer builds of Apple’s forthcoming OS for the announced Macintels included…"

Polyglot IM worm targets MSN: "A new worm spreading over IM networks is the first to check system settings in order to send a message in the appropriate language. The Kelvir-HI instant messaging worm is spreading over MSN Messenger's network, albeit modestly. IM security specialist Akonix classifies it as a low-risk threat."

Phishers and security firms in malware 'arms race': "

Def Con

Conventional phishing attacks launched via spam messages are becoming eclipsed by sophisticated malware designed to steal identities, according to a study by Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). Conventional phishing attacks launched via spam messages are becoming eclipsed by sophisticated malware designed to steal identities, according to a study by Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). APWG's July 2005 phishing reports adds that fraudsters are developing approaches specially designed to neutralise counter-phishing technologies.
APWG researchers reported a "marked increase" in screenscraper technology by phishers, an approach designed to counter graphical keyboard systems sometimes used by banks to thwart conventional key-logging Trojans. When a consumer selects a character on the graphical keyboard using mouse clicks, the screenscraper takes a snapshot of the screen and sends it to the phishers' server, in one example intercepted by the researchers. Despite the emergence of this more sophisticated technique keylogging Trojans remain a popular option. There were some 174 phishing-based Trojans detected in July, up from 154 in June. The majority of these Trojans lay in wait on sites hosted in either Brazil or the US. APWG's July 2005 phishing reports adds that fraudsters are developing approaches specially designed to neutralise counter-phishing technologies.…

Intel announces 'desktrino' home PC platform: "

'East Fork' to go live as VIIV

IDF Talk about Capitalizing on A DEAD HORSE! Intel has announced it is to offer a 'desktrino' home PC platform. The Centrino-esque brand will be VIIV - pronounced 'vive, IDF Intel has announced it is to offer a 'desktrino' home PC platform. The Centrino-esque brand will be VIIV - pronounced 'vive'.
Unsurprisingly, it's founded on a dual-core processors, and it's based on Windows Media Center Edition, VP and General Manager of Intel's Digital Home Group, Don MacDonald, revealed at Intel Developer Forum today.

“Look, Ma, No Schoolbooks”: "Wired News reports, Will this Ever happen in our life time? ‘Students at Empire High School here started class this year with no textbooks — but it wasn’t because of a funding crisis. Instead, the school issued iBooks — laptop computers by Apple Computer — to each of its 340 students, becoming one of the first U.S. public schools to shun printed textbooks. School officials believe the electronic materials will get students more engaged in learning.’ [Aug 19, 2005]"

(Via Apple Hot News.)

Apple Earns PC Magazine Readers’ Choice Awards: "PC Magazine reports, ‘Once again, Apple achieves scores that are far and away the highest for all vendors in our survey, earning Readers’ Choices in both desktops and notebooks. For Apple, in both the desktop and notebook sections of the survey, every single score is significantly better than the industry average for Windows machines. No exceptions.’ [Aug 24, 2005]

Glitch hits MS Patch Tuesday! Damn! MS has screwed up again! They tried to copy protected the XP and now they can't get their critical Update? LOL!: "

Oops

A glitch with IE updates available through Microsoft's Download Centre interrupted the smooth passage of Redmond's monthly patch express on Tuesday. The updates available on Microsoft Update and Windows Update were not affected and are installing properly but the files posted for manual download became corrupted. As a result their digital signature became broken and the patches failed to load properly.…

Girls prefer girly websites: official Like DUH! Didn't we know?: "

And blokes like it butch

A study by Glamorgan University Business School's Department of the Fairly Bleedin' Obvious has concluded that it's not just a website's subject matter that determines whether it appeals more to guys or gals but - wait for it - 'the appearance of the site also might play a subtle role', as AP explains.…

In the name of "Lets fight Terrorism, they are taking our rights away! Little by Little! MP calls for updated laws to fight cyberjihadis: "

The enemy is all around

A Labour MP is calling for updated legislation and greater international co-operation to make it easier for police to track and trace terrorist recruiters, animal rights extremists and other criminals on the net. Margaret Moran MP, chair of all-party Parliament Industry group EURIM, said that the police 'urgently' need resources to find extremists who 'use the internet to ensnare those who are alienated from society and turn them from sympathisers into enthusiasts and then fanatics'.…

Television is joining the 21 Century, Kicking and Screaming! CNN Using iChat AV: "Macworld staff reports, ‘CNN has begun an experiment that uses iChat AV to conduct face-to-face interviews. A new US show hosted by Wolf Blitzer, ‘Situation Room’, aims to mix traditional reporting with new online technologies — such as iChat AV.’ [Aug 09, 2005]"

Should The Mac Zealots Just Shut Up?: "

It is unlikely that there is any city in the US with a population over hundred thousand folks where you can’t go to central spot on a Friday evening and not receive the dreaded ‘attempted conversion.’ The procedure is both tiresome and familiar and runs something as follows: “You, in the black shirt, are you prepared for the end of the LIFE AS YOU KNOW IT!!!!!!?”
You: “I’m comfortable with my…”
Nut case: “Have you heard the WORD, the WORD will save you and this great country!!!!!?”
You (trying to be polite): “Uh, like I said, I’m fairly comfortable with my current choice in the…”
Nut Job: “Friend, allow me to give you this pamphlet. The PAMPHLET will open your eyes to the EVIL around US. SON, read the PAMPHLET and spread the WORD!!”
You: “I’m open minded, but I find your tactics not only annoying but a bit disingenuous so…”
Total freakin Nut Case: “Behold one of the EVIL ones, one the scorned few who drive four bangers. One who openly rejects the liberating advantages of a FULLY HEMI POWERED ENGINE. Scorn him children. Scorn the fool!”
You: “ Please tell me you won’t be here when I come out the bar.”
Person teetering betwixt institutionalization and self-care: “Will you please donate a few dollars so I can continue to spread the good WORD about the awesomely powered HEMI ENGINES!!!!?”
You: “Here’s two bucks”

Analysts at Wedbush Morgan Securities are saying that Sony could delay the PS3 into 2007, if the right market conditions allow for them to do so. What constitutes the right conditions? First, Sony needs to score a direct hit on the Xbox 360 launch by making the PS2 more attractive.

We believe that the company will attempt to disrupt the Xbox 360 launch with a price cut, and as a result may succeed in diverting attention away from the higher priced next generation console. We expect the Microsoft to attempt to engineer the Xbox 360 to be compatible with the current generation Xbox, and as a result, believe that Microsoft will maintain $149 pricing for its money-losing hardware..'

Windows Vista Tool Targeted By Virus Writers: "An anonymous reader writes 'Five proof-of-concept viruses that target Monad, the next version of Vista's command prompt, have been published on the web. Monad is a command line interface and scripting language that is similar to Unix shells such as bash, but is based on object-oriented programming and the .Net framework. The viruses' only action is to infect other shell scripts on the host's operating system. They would cause little harm in the wild, but would be relatively easy to modify using the information from the article, said Mikko Hyppönen, the director of antivirus research at F-Secure.'