SAN FRANCISCO–It’s no secret that spam now pollutes Web sites as well as e-mail in-boxes. But Web site operators can take actions to combat it, a Google expert in the area said Friday.

Matt Cutts, Google’s lead engineer for combating Web spam, at the Web 2.0 Expo

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team and an engineer who’s been working on the problem for eight years, offered some tips about combating it during a speech at the Web 2.0 Expo here.

“Spammers are human,” Cutts said. “You have the power to raise their blood pressure. Make them spend more time and effort…If spammer gets frustrated, he’s more likely to look for someone easier.”

How? Forthwith, some tips for those who manage their own or others’ Web sites.

• Use captcha systems to make sure real people, not bots, are commenting on your site. He uses a simple math puzzle–what’s 2 + 2?–but he also likes KittenAuth, which makes people identify kitten photos.

One blogger merely requires people to type the word “orange” into a field. “The vast majority of bots will never do that,” Cutts said.

• Reconfigure software settings after you’ve installed it. A little modification of various settings will throw bots off the scent. “If you can off the beaten path, away from default software installations, you’ll save yourself a ton of grief,” he said.

• Employ systems that rank people by trust and reputation. For example, eBay shows how long a person has been a member and how satisfied others are with transactions with that person.

• Don’t be afraid of legitimate purveyors of search-engine optimization services. “SEO is not spam. Google does not hate SEO,” Cutts said. “There are plenty of white-hat SEO (companies) who can help you out.”

Registering your Web site at Google’s Webmaster Central site can help find bogus search-engine optimization tricks others may use on your site, such as keywords written in white text on white backgrounds, he added.

TAKEN FROM www.news.com

It was a dark and stormy night, and the Consumerist team was hunkered down at HQ poring over leads. Suddenly, we heard a ruckus coming from the alley. Footsteps, followed by the sound of breaking glass and a cat crying out as if to say, “OMGWTF?” We ran out to see who it was, but by the time we got there they were long gone. Only the noise of faint footsteps could be heard dissolving into the distant hum of the night. I glanced down and spotted something on the ground. As I knelt down to pick it up I saw it was a tattered white envelope bearing the words, “7 Confessions of an Apple Mac Specialist.” Its contents, inside…

7. iPods have two fixes. Resetting and Restoring.
If both of those features do not work, your iPod is trash. Unless it’s under warranty or you purchased AppleCare, then they will give you two options. First is to trade in your iPod for 10% off any model (except shuffle), or they will give you out of warranty replacement, Which usually means that you will pay around $100-$250 depending on the model you purchased.

6. We have 4 things that we will try to sell you when you purchase a computer.
AppleCare, of course, is your extended 3 year warranty, we are told to sell it as a service plan, but it does not do ANYTHING extra, but extend your warranty, and does not cover anything extra. .Mac is a ripoff unless you use the web site hosting. ProCare has to be the biggest ripoff. All this does is upgrade your AppleCare for one year. It has a little perk for business uses, but otherwise useless. Lastly, One-to-One training, which is the best deal in the store.

5. If you have a return outside of the return policy we will most likely take care of you.
If it’s sealed we’ll take it back, and open, if you speak to a manager and plead your case, they will most likely take care of you no matter what.

4. We do not know ANYTHING about when some product will come out.
And we aren’t allowed to speculate on anything that isn’t on apple.com. We can get fired if we even tell a customer that a 3G iPhone might come out.

3. Apple Employment: If you want full-time, do not get into this company.
To be full-time, it is a recommendation that you be with the company for a year or more. The shifts are horrible, and they typically have more than 100 people working in a single mall store. For part-time you can get anywhere to 4-20 hours in one week, very very unreliable.”

2. Why we will ask you for your e-mail at checkout.
This is for two reasons. One, we will send your receipt to your email, and two there is a survey at the bottom of the email. This leads to the store being ranked on what is called detractors and promoters. The company takes an average from the surveys and ranks us. 10-9 is a promoter, 8-7 is a “passive” and 6 below is a detractor. Which leads to the next confession.

1. If you fill out the survey and rank us 6 or lower, a manager will call you the same day or the next, corporate policy.
They usually will ask why you had a bad experience, and offer to make it better, usually by discounting something or another for you. These are directly related to the salesperson who checked you out, so we get our asses reamed when we make a detractor. Also, If you complain to a manager, nothing usually gets done, it goes in one ear and out the other. Buy something very small, have them email your receipt, and fill out the survey. The management will wait on you hand and foot. Oh, and return the product.

TAKEN FROM /consumerist.com

Quantum cryptography may be essentially solved, but getting the funky physics to work on disciplined computer networks is a whole new headache.

Cryptography is an arms race, but the finish line may be fast approaching. Up to now, each time the codemakers made a better mousetrap, codebreakers breed a better mouse. But quantum cryptography theoretically could outpace the codebreakers and win the race. Forever.

Already the current state of the art in classical encryption, 128-bit RSA, can be cracked with enough raw, brute force computing power available to organisations like the US National Security Agency. And the advent of quantum computing will make it even simpler. The gold standard for secret communication will be truly dead.

Quantum cryptography solves the problem, and it will overcome the remaining stumbling block, the distribution of the code key to the right person, by using quantum key distribution (QKD).

Modern cryptography relies on the use of digital ‘keys’ to encrypt data before sending it over a network, and to decrypt it at the other end. The receiver must have a version of the key code used by the sender so as to be able to decrypt and access the data.

QKD offers a theoretically uncrackable code, one that is easily distributed and works in a transparent manner. Even better, the nature of quantum mechanics means that if any eavesdropper – called Eve in the argot of cryptographers – tries to snoop on a message the sender and receiver will both know.

That ability is due to the use of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which sits at the heart of quantum mechanics. The principle rests on the theory that the act of measuring a quantum state changes that state. It is like children with a guilty secret. As soon as you look at them their faces morph plausibly into ‘Who, me?’

The practical upshot for cryptography is that the sender and receiver can verify the security of the transmission. They will know if the state of the quanta has changed, whether the key has been read en route. If so, they can abandon the key they are using and generate a new one.

QKD made its real-world debut in the canton of Geneva for use in the electronic voting system used in the Swiss general election last year. The system guaranteed that the poll was secure. But, more importantly perhaps, it also ensured that no vote was lost in transmission, because the uncertainly principle established there was no change to the transmitted data.

The end of the beginning
The canton election was a demonstration of the work done by researchers for the SECOQC project, an EU-funded effort to develop an international network for secure communication based on QKD.

The test of the technology demonstrated that QKD worked for point-to-point communications between two parties. But the demonstration was just the beginning of the SECOQC’s overall goal.

“We want to establish a network wide quantum encryption, because it will mean it works over much longer distances,” explains Christian Monyk, co-ordinator of the SECOQC project and head of the quantum-technologies unit at the Austrian Research Centres. “Network quantum encryption and QKD mean that many parties can communicate securely, not just two. Finally, it also means quantum encryption could be deployed on a very large scale, for the insurance and banking sectors, for example.”

Moving the system from point-to-point communications to a network is an order of magnitude more difficult.

“The quantum science for cryptography and key distribution is essentially solved, and it is a great result,” Monyk says. “But getting that system to work across a network is much more difficult. You have to deal with different protocols and network architectures, develop new nodes and new interfaces with the quantum devices to get it to a large-scale, long distance, real-world application.”

Working at a distance
Getting the system to work over long distances is also a challenge because QKD requires hi-fidelity data transmission over high-quality physical networks like non-zero dispersion shifted fibre optics.

“It was not one big problem, it was many, many small computing science and engineering problems,” says Monyk. “We had to work with a large number of technologies. And we have to certify it to experts.”

But SECOQC’s researchers believe they have solved the network issue. The researchers are currently putting the final touches to a demonstration of the technology to be held this October in Vienna, Austria. Industry has shown great interest in the technology. Still the technology is not quite ready for prime time.

“From a technical point of view, the technology will be ready in one or two years,” says Monyk.

And that means that the race will be won, finally, by the codemakers.

TAKEN FROM www.alphagalileo.org

According to a just-released Air Combat Command report, 30 of the F-22A Raptors delivered by Lockheed Martin use “inadequate adhesive” in their airframes. That means two things in plain language: bad glue; and big trouble.

The report comes after investigators finished looking into an accident that happened last November. Part of the airframe of a F-22A fell off into the engine intake, causing a whopping $1.2 million of damage.

And, while we understand that machines so amazingly complex will always have flaws that need to be ironed out, let’s hope they used SuperGlue with the F-35 Lightning II. Or gum. [The Dew Line]

TAKEN FROM gizmodo.comgizmodo.com

Internet griefers descended on an epilepsy support message board last weekend and used JavaScript code and flashing computer animation to trigger migraine headaches and seizures in some users.

The nonprofit Epilepsy Foundation, which runs the forum, briefly closed the site Sunday to purge the offending messages and to boost security.

“We are seeing people affected,” says Ken Lowenberg, senior director of web and print publishing at the Epilepsy Foundation. “It’s fortunately only a handful. It’s possible that people are just not reporting yet — people affected by it may not be coming back to the forum so fast.”

TAKEN FROM www.wired.com

The incident, possibly the first computer attack to inflict physical harm on the victims, began Saturday, March 22, when attackers used a script to post hundreds of messages embedded with flashing animated gifs.

The attackers turned to a more effective tactic on Sunday, injecting JavaScript into some posts that redirected users’ browsers to a page with a more complex image designed to trigger seizures in both photosensitive and pattern-sensitive epileptics.

RyAnne Fultz, a 33-year-old woman who suffers from pattern-sensitive epilepsy, says she clicked on a forum post with a legitimate-sounding title on Sunday. Her browser window resized to fill her screen, which was then taken over by a pattern of squares rapidly flashing in different colors.

Fultz says she “locked up.”

“I don’t fall over and convulse, but it hurts,” says Fultz, an IT worker in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. “I was on the phone when it happened, and I couldn’t move and couldn’t speak.”

After about 10 seconds, Fultz’s 11-year-old son came over and drew her gaze away from the computer, then killed the browser process, she says.

“Everyone who logged on, it affected to some extent, whether by causing headaches or seizures,” says Browen Mead, a 24-year-old epilepsy patient in Maine who says she suffered a daylong migraine after examining several of the offending posts. She’d lingered too long on the pages trying to determine who was responsible.

Circumstantial evidence suggests the attack was the work of members of Anonymous, an informal collective of griefers best known for their recent war on the Church of Scientology. The first flurry of posts on the epilepsy forum referenced the site EBaumsWorld, which is much hated by Anonymous. And forum members claim they found a message board thread — since deleted — planning the attack at 7chan.org, a group stronghold.

Fultz says the attack spawned an uncommonly bad seizure. “It was a spike of pain in my head,” she says. “And the lockup, that only happens with really bad ones. I don’t think I’ve had a seizure like that in about a year.”

But she’s satisfied with the Epilepsy Foundation’s relatively fast response to the attack, about 12 hours after it began on Easter weekend. “We all really appreciate them for giving us this forum and giving us this place to find each other,” she says.

Epilepsy affects an estimated 50 million people worldwide, about 3 percent of whom are photosensitive, meaning flashing lights and colors can trigger seizures.

Mountain House (CA) - Intel is gearing up to launch what may be its most important product since the Pentium processor: The Atom CPU targets key growth markets and could ship hundreds of millions units within a few year. While much of the success will depend on unit numbers, sources told TG Daily that Atom will be big cash cow for Intel.

Price has been a key feature of Atom, previously code-named Silverthorne, since the very first time Intel talked about this product. Intel itself stated that the production cost of the tiny chip may be close to that of a 286 CPU, allowing the company to sell the processor for a low price to open a new market of Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and Nettop computers with prices well below the $200 range.

We don’t know the exact price of the Atom CPU yet and will have to wait until the official launch, which appears to be imminent, given the number of systems already being announced to include this processor. Rumors on the Internet currently put the cheapest Atom CPU in a price range between $29 and $49. We expect several SKUs, with the lower end targeting Silverthorne models and the MID/UMPC segment, while Diamondville (possibly dual-core) chips are rumored to go into cheap notebooks and desktops with prices of $500 and less.

Based on Intel’s marketing pitch, the burning question we have been working on for a while, of course, just how profitable this processor will be. We have talked to several sources and received feedback with initial estimates of $2 per CPU and studied reports that the chip may cost about $4. Today, we finally ended up with a source close to the matter and one we consider to be very credible. Industry sources put Atom into the range of “$6-$8″, which would be the production/packaging/shipping cost for the CPU, excluding the Poulsbo chipset. Let’s just assume that Intel will be able to squeeze $40 out of system vendors for Silverthorne and Diamondville - and you have one heck of a profit margin.

Our source was “skeptical” that Silverthorne will in fact be as successful as Intel claims the CPU will be, but noted that “it will be a good cash cow”. Intel is able to put 2500 Atom CPUs on one 300 mm wafer, which would put its production value at about $15,000 to $20,000. Intel should be able to easily hit a 90% yield, which would put the retail value of the CPUs on one wafer at about $100,000 or more. We’re currently digging for more details on the Diamondville and Poulsbo parts, to get a better idea of final bill of materials.

But if Silverthorne takes off in a spectacular manner and sparks a new generation of MIDs and UMPCs, the Atom lineup could end up earning more money than Core 2 does. And that really gives us some food for thought.

TAKEN FROM www.tomshardware.com

This watch has been dubbed the “Accurate” not so much for its abilities to keep accurate time, but for its reminder about our inevitable demise. Following in the tradition of memento mori, the Accurate watch continuously alerts us to the fact that life is short and that we should strive to seize the day. Damn…this thing would make me question everything I do. “I would like to grab a beer and relax guys but it is already 3:45! I should be climbing Mt. Everest right now!” Available for $145. [Watchismo via Boing Boing Gadgets via about:blank]

TAKEN FROM izmodo.com

March 28, 2008 (Computerworld) For some of us, it’s that magical time of year. Better than the winter holidays, better than Father’s or Mother’s Day — even better than your own birthday.

I speak, of course, about tax time. For the lucky masses getting a refund, cash coming back from the government feels like free money.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, the average taxpayer will receive about $2,300 back from the federal government. And, this year, starting in May, the U.S. Treasury is shelling out an economic stimulus payment of $600 per eligible taxpayer ($1,200 for couples filing jointly) and an additional $300 for each eligible child under 17.

Sure, you could squirrel that cash away, put it toward savings or retirement, or commit some other unnatural and responsible act. But why not treat yourself to something unnecessary and electronic? Here’s your guide.

Optimus Maximus keyboard

Optimus Maximus keyboard
Click to view larger image

You can buy a cheap keyboard for $20 just about anywhere computer stuff is sold. But why not opt for envy-producing excess in your keyboard? Nothing says “I’m better than you” like a coveted Optimus Maximus keyboard.

The keyboard, which was created by Russian design studio Art. Lebedev, has tiny 48-by-48-pixel, 65,536-color OLED displays on the top of the individual motionless keys. Use an included utility to program what each key will display.

You can use multiple “layouts” — for example, keys with an appearance and function optimized for specific PC games or applications or any given language. Click here for a demo.

You can purchase different versions of the keyboard with any varying number of keys activated — 1, 10, 47 or all of them. The Optimus Maximus works with Windows or Mac OS.

Art. Lebedev Studio retail price: $462 - $1,564 (depending on configuration)

Sony PX-LX300USB turntable

Sony PX-LX300USB turntable
Click to view larger image

Apple iTunes is great, but the truth is that some of the best music ever recorded has never been digitized. You can find incredible albums in local record stores, secondhand stores and maybe even your own basement.

The Sony PX-LX300USB is a brand-new, high-quality record turntable that plugs into a standard home stereo system for listening to records. But it also sports a USB cable. Plug it into your PC, and you can digitize those albums and convert them into MP3s that you can listen to on your iPod.

Sony MSRP: $150

Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 high-speed digital camera

Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 digital camera
Click to view larger image

Let’s face it. The reason your digital pictures suck has nothing to do with the number of megapixals in your camera. Even if you had a 30MB camera, you’d still capture your wife blinking, your kids just after they made that spectacular catch or the dog before he even jumps to catch the Frisbee.

That’s why the Casio EX-F1 is so revolutionary. When you snap a photo, the camera doesn’t take one, but 60 frames in a single second: 30 frames in the half-second after you press the button, and — miraculously — 30 frames in the half-second before you pressed it. Then, you can quickly scroll through those 60 frames, pick the perfect one and capture it for saving to the camera’s storage.

Even the flash is fast; a secondary LED flash can keep up with that 60 frame-per-second rate. And video! How about shooting super slow-mo at 1,200 frames per second?

  

TAKEN FROM www.computerworld.com 

Ubuntu is becoming more and more complete and easy to configure. However, like any operating system there’s work to be done after the installation. Here’s a list of 10 tips that you can use after installing or upgrading Ubuntu.

1. Install software fasterAs a commenter on Slashdot said:
   

   I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if thousands of apt-get repositories had cried out in pain, and were suddenly silenced.

   The Ubuntu software repositories can get really slow, and even stop responding completely around the time of a major Ubuntu release. Without a repository mirror, you can’t install software. The Synaptic package manager can help you find a faster mirror.

2. Install restricted extras (and enable the multiverse repository)Install support for playback of many types of audio and video, web fonts, Java, Flash, and DVD playback all in one go. Ubuntu restricted extras allow you to easy install everything that Ubuntu can’t include by default for legal reasons.

   Open Applications->Add/Remove. In the Show drop down box, select All available applications. This will enable the multiverse software repository, and give you access to the restricted extras and non-free software. Start typing restricted extras into the search box and check the box beside Ubuntu restricted extras when it appears in the results. Click Appy Changes to begin installing.

3. Silence the internal speaker beepSome Ubuntu applications make heavy use of that annoying speaker inside your PC’s case, such as Firefox when you are searching in a page. It’s not difficult permanently or temporarily disable.
4. Clear partition icons off the desktopI like to keep my desktop clean and free of icons. Ubuntu doesn’t, and will drop icons for other disk partitions on the desktop that you likely rarely or never need. You can change a setting using gconf-editor to fix this.
5. Remove old configuration filesIf you’ve upgraded your Ubuntu installation, or use a separate home partition, all of your settings will be carried over to the new Ubuntu installation. Your desktop could look exactly the same as before! This can cause problems when newer software is loading older configuration files. To start fresh, you can remove the old configuration.

   Open your home folder in the file browser, and select View->Show Hidden Files. Files and folders beginning with a dot are for configuration. Back these up first, and them remove them from your home folder. The next time you log in, you will see a pristine default Ubuntu desktop.

6. Remove old kernelsThis is a tip for those of you who have upgraded from a previous version of Ubuntu or installed during development. Is your boot menu full of options for booting Ubuntu with older kernels? Mine was too. You can safely remove the ones you don’t need.
7. Give Ubuntu a cool new lookThe default Ubuntu theme hasn’t changed, except for the wallpaper, in years. Why not find a new theme? Give Blubuntu a try, it’s an easily installable and complete blue alternative to the brown Human theme.
8. Run Windows applications with the latest WINENew WINE releases arrive every two weeks; the version in Ubuntu 8.04’s repository is already out-of-date. To be able to run Windows applications as well as possible, you should stay with the latest WINE releases.

   Open System->Administration->Software Sources, and select the Third Party Software tab. Click Add and paste in the official WINE Ubuntu repository:
   deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt hardy main

   When prompted, reload the repositories. Install the package wine from your package manager. Whenever a new version of WINE is released, you should see it in your Ubuntu updates.

9. Customize Compiz desktop effectsUbuntu’s default Compiz desktop effects settings are pretty tame. Want the cube and burning windows? Install the advanced configuration software and tweak as much as you like.
10. Easily toggle Compiz on and offYou may need to run an application or two that doesn’t work properly with Compiz, or find that it slows down 3D games. Fusion-icon runs in your notification area and makes it easy to switch between window managers.

TAKEN FROM tombuntu.com

Nvidia has sent around an email to “friends” declaring the CPU essentially dead, we learned today from a post over at the Inquirer. It is an interesting message from a high-ranking executive at the graphics chip manufacturer, which (since the information is out in the wild now) we would interpret as another shot at Intel’s graphics ambitions. Intel has been quiet recently, but Nvidia, it seems, gets more aggressive by the day.

This time around, a TG Daily article was sent around (not to us, just in case you wonder), omitting some Nvidia details.  

Thanks to the Inquirer for posting this article. 

TAKEN FROM www.tgdaily.com