] "You can get crackerjack Java programmers in India right
] out of college for $5,000 a year versus $60,000 here,"
] said Stephanie Moore, vice president for outsourcing at
] Forrester Research. "The technology is such, why be in
] New York City when you can be 9,000 miles away with far
] less expense?"

Ick ... someone else blogged a similar story a few weeks ago...

I.B.M. Explores Shift of White-Collar Jobs Overseas

] As devices get smarter, they can identify and adapt to
] individual users in a household, potentially making
] suggestions on everything from what to eat to how to
] dress. "Think of it as the electronic equivalent of an
] English butler," says Emile Aarts, vice-president and
] scientific program director at Philips Research
] Laboratories in Eindhoven. Those concepts may seem
] pie-in-the-sky now, but many are being tested in
] corporate labs -- and some are nearing commercialization.

Let's hope the telecom service providers don't screw this up.

Digital Homes

] Wozniak said he set out trying to solve problems people
] encounter in their everyday lives. In his case, he wanted
] an inexpensive way to know if his dog crossed over the
] electronic fencing around his home without having to tag
] the pet with an expensive device like a cell phone or
] Global Positioning System receiver.
]
] Rifredi said he's interested in having a way to track and
] instantly locate his 2-year-old son, "who's just getting
] mobile now."

Highly hyped WoZ net could be orwellian nightmare

update Microsoft said Friday that it is halting development of future Macintosh versions of its Internet Explorer browser, citing competition from Apple Computer's Safari browser.

Microsoft plans to keep the existing versions of IE available on its Mac Web site. The company is releasing a minor upgrade--IE version 5.2.3--to the OS X browser on Monday. Although a minor update to the Mac OS 9 version of the browser will also come within the next month, it is unclear how many releases will follow. "It depends, as things come up," Sommer said.

Microsoft: No new versions of IE for Mac | CNET News.com

] Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac lets
] you connect your Mac to a Windows-based computer, and
] work with programs and files on that computer.

Kick Ass

Remote Desktop Client for Mac

From speech_freedom2002@yahoo.com Wed Jul 16 10:59:47 2003
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 06:14:52 -0400
From: Rockit [speech_freedom2002@yahoo.com]
Reply-To: root@se2600.org
To: root@se2600.org
Subject: [se2600] Interz0ne Press Release re: Blackboard Settlement

Interz0ne Press Release:

Censorship via lawsuit wins again.

Lawyers working for Blackboard Inc., the maker of a card transaction, vending and ID system used by approximately 275 colleges and universities globally, as well as an undiscosed number of government and military installations, succeeded in silencing two college students who have found numerous flaws in Blackboard's flagship product over the last two years.

Georgia Tech student Billy Hoffman, along with University of Alabama student Virgil Griffith, initially kept the discoveries quiet while attempting to report them to Blackboard engineers, along with possible fixes. Traditionally, the discoverers of such flaws allow the vendors time to fix problems before going public; this provides the vendors with essentially free quality control labor while the discoverers get later bragging rights and items to pad their resumes. This unofficial system has worked well in the past, to the extent that Blackboard even boasts of working with the hacker community on their website.

Instead of taking an interest in news of these flaws, however, Blackboard engineers first dismissed Hoffman as a know-nothing "kid", then attempted to have him expelled from Georgia Tech after he voiced his concerns about Tech's Blackboard system to campus administrators and student organizations. Hoffman responded by first publishing his (and later Griffith's) findings, and then updating his articles via talks at various vendor and security conferences.

It was at such a conference, Interz0ne II in Atlanta, that Hoffman and Griffith were planning to discuss the most severe problems they had uncovered to date, including a demonstration of several easy-to-assemble hardware devices that could supposedly allow anyone with malicious intent free reign on a Blackboard system.

Hoffman and Griffith never gave their talk.

Instead, they and the convention organizers were served with both restraining orders and cease and desist orders. Court dates soon followed, along with legal threats. Several months after the convention, both Hoffman and Griffith settled out of court. They refuse to discuss the issue, so one can assume that the settlement includes an NDA.

Blackboard spokesdrone Michael Stanton stated to AP reporters on Monday, July 14th (a day before the settlement was officially filed) that "...the claims [Hoffman and Griffith] were making were silly," that "...they really didn't do a lot of the things they were claiming to [have done]" and that the settlement reaffirms that Blackboard's systems are secure.

Bullshit.

The settlement does nothing of the sort.

If Hoffman and Griffith's clai... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

Interz0ne Press Release - re: Blackboard Settlement