Technology

The agency in charge of U.S. road safety kept secret hundreds of pages of data about the dangers of using cellphones while driving. The former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says he feared publishing the details could ... jeopardize Congressional funding. Dr. Jeffrey Runge says the data was so compelling that he wanted to write to all of the country's state governors and warn them of the dangers. He also wanted to publish the data, including a July 2003 memo concluding with the advice that "drivers not use wireless communication devices, including text messaging ... (view more)

Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of computer security vulnerability typically found in web applications which allow code injection by malicious web users into the web pages viewed by other users. XSS: Background The expression "cross-site ... scripting" originated from the fact that a malicious web site could load another web site into another frame or window then use Javascript to read or write data on the other web site. The definition gradually changed to mean the injection of HTML and Javascript into a web page. Example of a Cross-site Scripting Attack Examples of an XSS code include ... (view more)

A new prototype designed especially for women will ensure that phone calls are never missed again, while making one look highly fashionable in the process. The product is actually a sleek dress engineered to light up every time the wearer's mobile ... phone rings. Whenever I'm supposed to meet up with a group of friends at a sports bar or restaurant, I always cringe when I hear one of them utter the inevitable phrase "Just give me a call on my cell and we'll set up a place to meet." I've come to learn that this translates into "You're pretty much on your own, since I'll never be ... (view more)

Click fraud is a type of Internet crime that occurs in pay per click online advertising. How Click Fraud Works A person or automated computer program imitates a legitimate user clicking on an ad online a web site. The ad is clicked for the purpose ... of generating a charge (per click) to the advertiser. Click Fraud with respect to PPC Advertising Pay per click (PPC) advertising is an arrangement in which web sites ("publishers") display clickable ads from an advertising network in exchange for revenue earned for each ad clicked. Each time a (believed to be) valid user clicks on an ad, ... (view more)

In a strange turn of events, Canadian geese have been pinpointed as the cause of US Airways' Flight 1549 crash into the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. According to reports, a flock of birds collided with the airbus shortly after take off. An ... investigation into the crash has been underway for months. Leading the charge are researchers from the Smithsonian Institution, who sent samples of bird feathers found on the plane to the Feather Identification Laboratory at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. (Source: latimes.com ) Planes Present Real Threat to Bird Populations ... (view more)

Patch Tuesday is the second Tuesday of each month, the day on which Microsoft releases security patches. Windows Updates Starting with Windows 98, Microsoft included Windows Update: a system that automatically checks for security patches and fixes ... for MS Windows, MS Office, and other Microsoft products, and notifies the user of such updates. Automatic Updates vs Windows Updates The idea of Windows Update system suffered from two primary issues. On one hand, less experienced users were not aware of updates, and would not run them -- leaving their system vulnerable to exploits. Microsoft's ... (view more)

Electronic paper, also called ePaper, is a display technology designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Electrophoretic displays are considered prime examples of the electronic paper category, because of their paper-like appearance ... and low power consumption. Unlike a conventional flat panel display, which uses a backlight to illuminate its pixels, electronic paper reflects light like ordinary paper and is capable of holding text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity, while allowing the image to be changed later. Easy Viewing ePaper is considered more comfortable ... (view more)

At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California last week, the most powerful laser ever made was readied for a variety of important tasks, from monitoring nuclear weapons to studying deep space planets and solar systems. The official ... name of the new super laser is the National Ignition Facility (NIF), and late last week it was unveiled with much fanfare at the Livermore laboratory in Livermore, California. World's Strongest Laser State governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who scared the beejezus out of us all with his futuristic, laser-eyed cyborg routine back in the 1990s, was on hand ... (view more)

A website designed for document sharing will soon allow authors to sell electronic copies of their books. The endeavor could mark a dramatic evolution in the publishing industry. Scribd.com will take advantage of its iPaper technology, designed to ... show any document format on any computer. The iPaper format works similarly to Adobe's PDF (portable document format), but is purpose-built for the web and does not require the user have any software installed. Readers can also download the entire file in its original format. At the moment, the site exists for a variety of purposes, such as allowing ... (view more)

A new mobile WiFi hotspot device about the size of a credit card is threatening to make USB cellular modems look primitive. One such devices is the Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot. It works by tapping into the Verizon 3G Mobile ... broadband network to create a personalized WiFi ' cloud ' for a fixed number of devices within a 50 foot area. USB-based modems boast similar features in allowing users to connect to the Internet while in motion or from a remote location. However, the biggest drawback of using a USB modem is that they are exclusive to only one device. (Source: ... (view more)