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Proposals by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and state agencies to use data-mining techniques to track terrorists are floundering, encountering criticism from civil liberties activists and technologists who blast the plans as too "theoretical" and not technically feasible. The FBI last wee...

Along with efforts to make its software more manageable, Microsoft has announced it is replacing its Software Update Services with a new, more forceful program called Windows Update Services, which will be aimed at getting security patches installed more quickly. Microsoft said Update Services 1.0, ...

Nokia -- like the rest of the wireless telephone industry -- has suffered in the public eye of late. First, the tech downturn harmed wireless phone sales around the world, not just in the United States. Then came allegations that Nokia's wireless phones were exploding due to negligent manufacturing ...

The volume of goods being purchased via the Internet is rising. However, while certain consumers know what they want and feel comfortable making an instant purchase, many have questions about product pricing, availability and quality. Increasingly, the latter group is turning to online comparison-sh...

Today at the third annual Microsoft Management Summit, Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Windows Server Division at Microsoft, laid out Microsoft's vision and technology road map for reducing the cost and complexity of managing and securing enterprise systems: the Microsoft "dynamic systems i...

The number of security holes poked in computer software may be leveling off as vendors scramble to make their products more secure, but the vulnerabilities that are found these days -- despite these efforts -- are more severe. New vulnerabilities increasingly are being leveraged to attack companies ...

State attorneys general meeting in Washington, D.C., this week may be weighing a move to crack down on makers of Internet file-sharing software. A document obtained by TechNewsWorld titled "Draft Attorneys General Letter to Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Software Manufacturers and Distributors (Californi...

With half a billion copies of its Reader document software in use, Adobe has shown its strength in the digital dimension. But the company now is committing more to government agencies, businesses and other organizations that are forced through regulation, mandate or competition to maintain use of ha...

In addition to assigning traditional clock speeds to processors, Intel is rumored to be preparing to assign performance names to its chips. But in discussions with TechNewsWorld, an industry analyst and Intel company insider have indicated those reports are incorrect. When asked about a new performa...

Researchers in North Carolina State University's Department of Computer Science have developed a new data transfer protocol for the Internet that makes today's high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) connections seem lethargic. The protocol is named BIC-TCP, which stands for Binary Increase Congest...

The recent spate of computer worms have included elements of spamming and a supposed battle of words between different malware authors, but the real intent of the dueling viruses is to deny site availability to online gaming companies and other sites that have not complied with Russian mobsters' dem...

As I write this column, I am at an amazing conference session full of attendees who are influencing the world. Ranging from marketing executives to media consultants to top journalists, these people have influence over the perceptions that shape our reality. This is history in the making, and I'm in...

TECHNOLOGY AND MUSIC

Super Vision: Technology, Music and the Inventive Spirit

In this column in the coming months, I will be writing about people with vision in the area of music, the arts and the technical arts. Specifically, I'll focus on what they have created, their views of now and the future, and what motivates them to create. I hope that by writing about unique people ...

Propose a technology that will stem the flow of unwanted e-mail spam, and the industry will definitely listen -- but if it's Microsoft that is doing the proposing, suspicion and fear follow that interest. Such is the case with Microsoft's proposal for a caller ID system for e-mail that would diminis...

A new, national report by comScore Networks indicates broadband Internet access is ready to overtake dial-up access as the top online subscription service in major metro markets in the United States. The study, released this week in the Reston, Virginia-based company's fourth-quarter market-share re...


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