A researcher at Indiana University has developed technology he calls “active cookies” that he says will help defeat online scams. Markus Jacobsson, associate professor of informatics and associate director of the Indiana University Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, has teamed up with Ari Juels, manager and principal research scientist at RSA Laboratories, to form a […]

Music and video download company Ruckus Network is dropping its subscription model for an ad-based model and has announced a deal with Internet2 to distribute content over its high-speed network. Ruckus was not able to attract significant numbers of subscribers under its old plan. Campuses that sign up for Ruckus’s new service will pay only […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) have issued a set of warnings about the kinds of cyberthreats the two organizations anticipate will be on the rise in 2006. Officials involved said the list of predictions is intended to raise awareness of computer threats in the hope that users […]

Speaking at the RSA Conference this week, FBI Director Robert Mueller called for more partnerships among law enforcement agencies, the private sector, and colleges and universities. Mueller characterized cyberspace as a “largely unprotected frontier with seemingly limitless opportunity,” noting that much of that opportunity is exploited by criminals. He said the changing landscape of technology […]

A new computer virus that targets the Apple OS X operating system has been identified. Although the malicious code is not sophisticated–it requires users to “download the application and execute the resulting file,” according to Apple–and has been labeled a low-level threat by McAfee and Symantec, it may represent the first virus in circulation that […]

Microsoft has awarded $1 million in academic research grants for projects studying Microsoft Virtual Earth technology and the company’s Trustworthy Computing initiatives. Grants were awarded to researchers in countries around the world, with a maximum award of $50,000 for individual proposals. Awardees for the Virtual Earth grants will study spatio-temporal databases, routing, computer vision, ontologies, […]

Google will provide e-mail service for students of San Jose City College under a new agreement just announced. The college, which is part of the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District, has about 10,000 students, some of whom remain students for years while others only stay for one semester, according to Michael John Renzi, director of […]

Two organizations leading efforts to develop computing grids have agreed to a merger. The Global Grid Forum (GGF) and the Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA) will join forces by summer, according to a statement from the two groups. The statement noted the two organizations’ “common interest in accelerating the pervasive adoption of grids worldwide.” The GGF, […]

Nicholas Negroponte will step down from the chairmanship of MIT’s Media Lab, which he cofounded in 1985, to pursue his project of supplying $100 laptops to developing countries. The United Nations has endorsed the plan, which Negroponte says will be a boon to education and development in the world’s poorest nations. Negroponte has set up […]

Here are some miscellaneous hiking pictures.