Thursday, February 19, 2004

Iran, Iraq, and two Shiite visions. As Shiite-run Iran begins its elections Friday, Shiites in Iraq follow a different vision toward their own democratic debut. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories] 11:09:08 PM    comment []

Side-by-side comparison of Yahoo's new Inktomi-based search engine and Google 10:59:41 PM    comment []

Machinista 2004: A yearly unmediated open submission exhibition of creative and technological innovations relating to the ideas of "artificial intelligence in the arts" and "new human-machine interactions". 11:29:12 AM    comment []

News from Korean ISPs: 80 Percent of e-Mails Here Found to Be Spams, by Kim Tae-gyu, The Korea Times. 11:29:09 AM    comment []

Scientists Say Administration Distorts Facts. More than 60 influential scientists are asserting that the Bush administration distorts scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the environment, health and other areas. By James Glanz. [New York Times: Science] Another to file under "restoring integrity to the White House." 7:31:53 AM    comment []

PKI's alive and kicking. CoreStreet President Phil Libin notes that while the public key infrastructure has been declared dead a number of times, it just refuses to die--like TCP/IP, it's grown. [CNET News.com - Front Door] 7:28:24 AM    comment []

Another page Another What can you do with a Philosophy degree? page, this one at Arkansas, Little Rock. My own page, What can I do with a degree in philosophy? lists some, but not all, of the same philosophy majors famous for doing something else. 7:26:51 AM    comment []

Discussion: The Joy of Cybersex or a recipe for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?. I was just rereading the following classic description of cybersex by Julian Dibbell: "Netsex, tinysex, virtual sex -- however you name it, in real-life reality... [The Alphaville Herald] 7:21:31 AM    comment []

New news page version for handheld devices. Purportal news: we're testing out a lightweight version of the news page especially for handheld devices -- Palms, PocketPCs and so on. Check it out and share your thoughts! [Purportal.com Headlines] 7:19:58 AM    comment []

Now Preening on the Coffee Table: The TiVo Remote Control. Building the TiVo remote control involved large teams of industrial designers, months of work and lots of consumer testing. By Katie Hafner. [New York Times: Technology] 7:17:41 AM    comment []

WU to offer social responsibility pledge to 2004 graduates. The class of 2004 will be the first group of Webster University students to receive a Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility along with the rest of their graduation information when graduation packets are mailed. President Richard Meyers, along with the vice presidents of the university and the president of the faculty, decided to include the voluntary pledge at the request of Webster's Center for Ethics. [The Journal] 6:58:30 AM    comment []

Bank ATMs Converted to Steal IDs of Bank Customers (UT Austin Police). A team of organized criminals is installing equipment on legitimate bank ATMs in at least 2 regions to steal both the ATM card number and the PIN. The team sits nearby in a car receiving the information transmitted wirelessly over weekends and evenings from equipment they install on the front of the ATM (see photos). If you see an attachment like this, do not use the ATM and report it immediately to the bank using the 800 number or phone on the front of the ATM. The equipment used to capture your ATM card number and PIN is cleverly disguised to look like normal ATM equipment. A "skimmer" is mounted to the front of the normal ATM card slot that reads the ATM card number and transmits it to the criminals sitting in a nearby car. At the same time, a wireless camera is disguised to look like a leaflet holder and is mounted in a position to view ATM PIN entries. 3:26:51 AM    comment []