Monday, February 06, 2006

'Key', Billion-dollar Eavesdropping Program Six Years Late (so far) A program that was supposed to help the National Security Agency pluck out electronic data crucial to the nation's safety is not up and running more than six years and $1.2 billion after it was launched, according to current and former government officials. [...] Although the Bush administration spent much of the past week defending the NSA's eavesdropping work as vital to keeping Americans safe from terrorism, virtually no attention has been paid to the agency's failure to deliver the system the NSA said was key to fulfilling that mission. 10:32:48 AM    comment []

Four from BNA News: NET SURVEILLANCE YIELDS FEW SUSPECTS Intelligence officers who eavesdropped on thousands of Americans in overseas calls under authority from President Bush have dismissed nearly all of them as potential suspects after hearing nothing pertinent to a terrorist threat. The Bush administration refuses to say how many Americans in the past four years have had their conversations recorded or their e-mails read by intelligence analysts without court authority. Two knowledgeable sources placed that number in the thousands, with one of them saying about 5,000. AUTHORITIES SAY TEENS REVEAL TOO MUCH ONLINE Authorities say teens are increasingly finding trouble in an online environment where millions of people can, in seconds, find out where they go to school, learn their interests, download their pictures and instantly send them messages. Police in the central Connecticut city of Middletown suspect that as many as seven girls were recently assaulted by men they met on MySpace. CONGRESS QUERIES PHONE RECORDS BROKERS Politicians on Friday threw a dozen questions at companies that operate Web sites offering to sell a person's telephone calling record to anyone with $110. Leaders from the US House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters with the queries to the director of Florida-based First Source Information Specialists, which manages Locatecell.com and Celltolls.com, among others, and to the director of Texas-based PDJ Services, which manages the site Phonebust.com. Legislators estimated this week that a total of at least 40 such operations exist. KAMA SUTRA WORM CAUSES LITTLE DAMAGE Companies and individuals heeded last week's warning about the file-destroying computer worm known as "Kama Sutra", helping minimize its damage last Friday. Security vendors say many companies and individuals had time to clean up their machines following the alarm, carried by scores of media outlets. 10:32:43 AM    comment []

Jill: How to retain the right to publish your own work My very helpful librarian sent me a link to an author’s addendum for those contracts where you sign away your rights to publish your own article online. So next time a publisher sends me a contract, I can sign it and attach my copy of this addendum, making the contract palatable to me! Hooray! [edit: snipped grumpy unnecessary bit] 10:32:38 AM    comment []

WMF Exploits Sold By Russian Hackers: The biggest reason the Windows Meta File bug caused so much havoc, security researchers are saying, is that Russian hackers sold the exploit to anyone with the money. 9:32:46 AM    comment []

"Blogging for Progress" -- $1000 college scholarship for blogging. ProgressiveU.org is now accepting entries for its second semiannual "Blogging for Progress" Scholarship contest. The contest encourages current and prospective college students to write about current events, society, the environment, and public policy. The first-place winner will be awarded a $1000 scholarship, and three runners-up will be awarded $300 scholarships. The deadline for entries is June 1, but early entrants have an advantage, as scoring is based on the number of posts and readership over the five month period of the contest. There is no fee to enter. Last year's entrants reached an audience of over half a million people during the contest period, and their postings continue to be read by thousands of people each day. We encourage all budding writers, journalists, bloggers, and leaders to start blogging for progress today, and make your voice heard. More information, and registration forms are available at: http://www.progressiveu.org/BFP_FAQ 9:32:35 AM    comment []

Iran taunts west on security council move. World: Tehran prohibits surprise inspections of atomic sites · President: 'Our enemies cannot do a damn thing' [Guardian Unlimited] 6:30:12 AM    comment []

US media at 'all-time low'. And: Media largely ignored Fitzgerald revelation that White House may have destroyed emails Few major news outlets have covered the fact -- first reported by the New York Daily News -- that in a letter to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's defense attorneys, special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald said that numerous emails from 2003 are missing from the White House computer archives.(Media Matters)   Technorati tags: dirty_tricks Libby Wilson Plame media press [Follow Me Here...] 6:29:47 AM    comment []

On innocence, having nothing to hide, and the current administration: This Modern World. Why is everyone so worked up about this so-called spying scandal? [Salon] 6:29:36 AM    comment []

The virus-busters fighting rise in internet crime. Technology: Computer hacking becomes big business fraud· Sophisticated attacks a far cry from bored teenagers [Guardian Unlimited] 6:29:08 AM    comment []

TV on the Internet. TV ON THE INTERNET Look at all this: 1) NBC is producing an internet-only reality tv show called Star Tomorrow. 2) Bravo will launch a site, OutZone.tv, with original gay programming. 3) AOL and Mark Burnett are working on an internet reality tv show called Gold Rush. 4) Amazon is starting an original talk show hosted by Bill Maher called Amazon Fishbowl. All of these online-only -- no broadcast. Occasionally funny: MySpace: The Movie. "Why am I not in your top eight?" Current Rocketboom ad price: $15K Super Bowl ads via Google Video.  . . . FILM More trailer mashups: Brokeback to the Future. Or how about fake trailers? Tarantino and Rodriguez have crazy ideas. What was the weirdest part of the Super Bowl? Noticing during the Mission Impossible III trailer that Philip Seymour Hoffman is the main villain in the movie. Here's a PSH interview with David Remnick.  . . . FAKE NEWS A new journal for cross-disciplinary studies in plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification: Plagiary. [via NYT story.] [Fimoculous.com] 6:28:51 AM    comment []