News: The Future Of Inflight Entertainment, From A Baggage Handler

By | November 24, 2011
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 Nice, interesting story about an Alaska Airlines baggage handler who has come up with the digEplayer, a 2.4-pound, battery-powered unit can hold up to 30 full-length movies, hours of digital music, maps, cartoons, sitcoms, language courses and travel promotions. It’s an inflight entertainment system that will start appearing on Alaska Airlines next month: The units, which cost a little more than $1,000, will be provided free to first-class passengers. Passengers in the main cabin will be able to rent the media players for $10 or reserve them before boarding for $8.

Update: The Dana Wireless Is Out

By | November 24, 2011
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 As I noted earlier, AlphaSmart are upgrading their Dana keyboard (a PDA? a laptop? a word-processor?) to include Wi-Fi. It’s now out. The Dana Wireless includes Wi-Fi (802.11b) connectivity and software applications for accessing the Internet. AlphaSmart are aiming at students and educators, professionals in healthcare, energy, social services, insurance, etc. which have Wi-Fi in their offices or campus. It may not be the best way to surf the net, but it would be great for sending emails and accessing basic data. Dana Wireless is a two-pound, highly durable laptop alternative powered by Palm OS® with a large screen and integrated full-size keyboard. It’s not cheap: it sells for $429.

News: Spam In Court Defeat Horror

By | November 24, 2011
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 Here’s another bit of good news for the war on rubbish cluttering the Internet. Anti-spam activist Nigel Featherston has won a $250,000 default judgment in Washington State against a spam organization in Ohio known for sending millions of spam emails. This, according to his lawyers, could be one of the largest anti-spam awards in the history of the Washington spam law. Here’s the rest of the press release, which actually makes quite interesting reading. 

News: Two Young Fellas Nabbed For The TK Worm

By | November 24, 2011
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 Two young Brits have been charged in connection with the TK Worm (also known as Troj/TKBot-A), which appeared last year and caused an estimated £5.5 million worth of damage. Jordan Bradley, 20, of Bates Avenue, Darlington, and Andrew Harvey, 22, of Scardale Way, Durham, are believed by the National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) to be members of a hacking group known as the “Thr34t-Krew” which launched the Trojan horse designed to break into internet-connected computers.
 
It’s something of a roll for law enforcement folks. Recently, two other young men were named in connection with variants of
the Blaster internet worm.  Jeffrey Lee Parson was arrested by the FBI in late August, and a Romanian man is believed to be assisting police with their enquiries.  Meanwhile Simon Vallor, who served nine months in prison for creating three viruses, was released yesterday.

Software: See Ya Later, ‘Gator

By | November 24, 2011
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 Here’s one way to get rid of spyware and adware — software that’s inveigled its way onto your computer and is phoning home on your browsing habits, usually to throw unwanted ads onto your screen. interMute, Inc. has released a new version of SpySubtract, that detects and safely removes spyware and security threats, which includes a special feature to wipeout software from Gator Corp. – a major Web pop-up advertising company that uses spyware technology to profile and target users.
 
SpySubtract’s free version allows PC users to easily detect and remove spyware. For $29.95, users can upgrade to SpySubtract PRO, which provides spyware database updates to protect against newly discovered spyware and worms.