Each weekend we highlight our top stories of the week. To find out what's coming up, click over to our Calendar of E-vents.
Marked for life: Are safeguards in place to prevent the unauthorized access and release of DNA samples collected from crime scenes and some criminals? An FBI advisory panel said nope, not in the vast majority of states.
And if you think this issue isn't relevant to you, think again. Police in Scotland are already taking DNA from people stopped for any crime, even traffic offenses, and London police say they hope to be using handheld DNA scanners within 10 years. The privacy implications could be staggering.
Torvalds & Co.: After four years of wild speculation, rumor, and out-and-out nonsense, tight-lipped Transmeta announced (sort of) that it is about to divulge its purpose. A note on the company's Web site -- revealed only by looking at the page's source code -- promised that next January it will reveal a processor called "Crusoe," which it described as "cool hardware and software for mobile applications."
Liable to sue: The Recording Industry Association of America said it will file a lawsuit against Napster, the company that makes software that combines chat features and a music player -- and lets users share their MP3 libraries with each other. How far the suit goes will depend a lot on whether the law believes product manufacturers can be held liable for the ways in which the devices can be used, such as piracy.
No more free ride: Utah's Mike Leavitt said Internet firms should "step up to the obligation that any business has anywhere in America." To that end, over 30 states drafted a plan to start charging sales tax, under which governments would approve software that Web sites use to charge taxes based on the shipping destination.
All that glitters: November + Vegas = Comdex. It's a tradition -- maybe a slightly dusty one at age 20, but heavyweights and newcomers alike still showed up to use it as a forum to show off their innovations.
Among the cool new gizmos intro'd this week was the iBrow, a notebook-sized Net access device that any company could slap a logo on, and offer email and Internet access with an individual flair.
Another company came to Comdex in search of managers -- and said it preferred people who've been with companies that went belly-up. Really. Neovo, a subsidiary of Associated Industries of Taiwan, explained that "if you hit a home run the first time out, you don't learn that much."
Beware the Boy: Anti-virus companies and Microsoft made all the tools necessary to fight off BubbleBoy, the virus poised to break into the wild. But experts expected few people to take the time to protect themselves -- a really bad thing, since BubbleBoy can launch when you simply preview a message using Microsoft Outlook for email.
Newsgroup war: Privacy advocates said a judge went too far when he added a Usenet ban to an order that forbids a Seattle man to contact his adversaries in the real world, on the phone, or using email. This was no mere squabble, mind you -- it eventually came to death threats. Still, "A more appropriate order would be one that prohibited threatening language in messages targeted to a specific individual," said the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
One atop the other: Researchers at Lucent's Bell Labs said they'd figured out a way to stack transistors on top of each other, allowing for smaller and more powerful processors. You better believe it's a big deal -- the ability to manufacture chips vertically may give current chipmaking technology a new lease on life.
Spy vs. spy: Does Echelon, the long-alleged worldwide electronic surveillance system, really exist? The American Civil Liberties Union thinks so. It launched Echelon Watch, a site designed to prompt governmental investigation into the reality -- and the legalities -- of the mysterious eavesdropping system."
Rock bottom: The ridiculously famous don't fade away; they just migrate to the Web in search of rent money. Heidi Fleiss, Gary Coleman, Linda Tripp, and Monica Lewinsky are just a few spotted trying to replenish sinking bank accounts -- and celebrity stature.
Not not-for-profit: Helping Americans fulfill their civic duty used to be the exclusive preserve of shiny-eyed idealists, but thanks to the Net, voter education may become big business. Several companies outlined their plans to make a buck by offering information on campaigns and candidates to voters, including one that plans to use a constellation of sites to leverage a more lucrative side of its business: political consulting.
Lesson not learned: RealNetworks ran into big-time trouble earlier this month doing data "personalization," but that didn't scare people away from the Personalization Summit in San Francisco. Organizers expected 350 attendees, but at least 500 people showed up. "Some folks get it, but I think it's going to take a few more 'data Valdezes' before they really take the time to retrofit their information systems to handle information fairly," said privacy advocate Jason Catlett.
All together now: Secure Digital Music Initiative director Leonardo Chiariglione said he's optimistic the group will be able to create a system that allows any SDMI track to play on any SDMI player. Of course, there are more than 150 companies from a variety of industries involved in the process, and as Chiariglione noted, "you have different definitions of interoperability depending on which industry you're talking to."
CDs no more: A new licensing regime gave Canadian DJs the freedom to spin MP3s from their computer hard drives. "This is something DJs have been waiting for," said Mike Heindl of the Canadian Disc Jockeys Association. "Record companies are still living in the days of vinyl -- they don't want to even recognize the existence of MP3s. That's why this decision is so important."
Being heard: Only a handful of small MP3-based companies like Xing, MusicMatch, Diamond Multimedia, and GoodNoise attended the first Webnoize. But it was a different story this year, with the roster of attendees reading like a who's who in digital music.
The most interesting take presented at the conference? It might have been MIT Media Lab researcher Eric Scheirer's prediction that over the next three to five years, online music will become a seamless part of the mainstream consumer's entertainment experience.
Hand in hand: Palm and Sony struck an alliance that has the potential to vastly increase the number of Palm OS devices, positioning Palm as the Microsoft of the handheld era. Under the deal, Sony will put the Palm OS "into an entirely new line of handheld electronics products." In return, Sony's Memory Stick technology will be integrated into the Palm platform.
Show me the gals: Pioneering computer scientist Anita Borg expressed skepticism that the number of women in tech is increasing. "I'll believe it when I see it," said Borg, a member of the research staff at Xerox PARC and president and founder of the Institute for Women in Technology. Borg noted that in big companies, women become managers and top VPs -- but they don't make it far along the purely technical track.
Strange bedfellows: ArtSci 99 brought together artists, scientists, and people with interests in both areas to try to dispel the misconceptions and stereotypes that divide scientists and artists by finding common ground in their approaches to creativity. Among the participants was MIT's John Maeda, who presented a series of short videos depicting his experiments that try to bridge the gap between computing and graphic design.
Banner bomb: NetZero promoted a way for companies to advertise above a competitor's site -- and protect themselves from such ads. "If you're Amazon.com, advertise over your own site so Barnes&Noble doesn't go there," said NetZero Chief Executive Mark Goldston, offering a hypothetical of how Ad Missle and Ad Missile Defense Shield might work.
That's the week that was. For information on ongoing goings-on, click over to The Calendar of E-vents.
