Tech 101 - Episode 1

CourseCast of the Week

Episode 0013, 09/02/2007

Title: Virtual Big Brother, Printing Body Parts, Windows Genuine Disadvantage

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 13, recorded September 2nd, 2007.

This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information targeted at college students.

This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.course.com for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions for higher education.

Story 1 - Virtual Big Brother

China's reputation for censoring Internet content is well known. The Chinese government blocks its citizens from many overseas sites, and arrests citizens who post obscene or subversive content on the Web. Chinese law enforcement officers monitor computer users with both a physical presence and through electronic surveillance. This week, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau announced it is employing virtual police officers to patrol the Web. Chinese Web surfers will soon become very familiar with cute little anime style police officers that pop up in the Web browser every half hour warning users to stay away from illegal Internet content. The Associated Press writes that the animated police are "designed to startle Web surfers and remind them that authorities closely monitor Web activity." The virtual police are on China's 13 top Web portals with plans to expand to every registered site.

Sources: "Beijing Police Launch Virtual Web Patrol" (Associated Press), "China to begin web monitoring with Clippy-style animated police" (arstechnica)

Story 2 - Printing Body Parts

In an article that reads more like a sci-fi novel, ars technica reports on a new technology that will allow scientists to use ink-jet printer technology to create human organs for organ transplants. Bioprinting takes advantage of an ink-jet printer's ability to place "small volumes of liquid at extremely precise locations." Rather than ink, bioprinting fills printer cartridges with cells, often created from stem-cells, suspended in a solution that will gel after "printing." By feeding the printer the coordinates for the locations of each type of specialized cell, the printer prints out what is essentially a thin slice of a healthy organ. A second slice can then be printed on top of the first, and the process repeated until a three-dimensional organ has been created. Scientists are working on strengthening the connection between cells to support full functionality.

Source: ""Printing" replacement body parts using inkjet printers, stem cells as ink" (arstechnica)

Story 3 - Windows Genuine Disadvantage

Some Windows users received a shock this week when their computer mistakenly told them that "your copy of Vista appears to be Counterfeit." The Windows Genuine Advantage technology (or WGA) is designed to check the validity of Windows installations over the Internet to catch pirated copies. Systems tagged as pirated are given a warning and the functionality of the system is reduced. This week, the WGA system malfunctioned and treated 12,000 registered users like pirates. Needless to say, this did not endear those users to Microsoft. Microsoft, on the other hand, was quick to repair the issue and offer its apologies.

Sources: " Microsoft's Antipiracy Software Nails Legit Users" (NewsFactor), "WGA failure: 12,000 systems affected, caused by "human error"" (arstechnica)

New Briefs

Acer has bought Gateway for $710 Million in what is considered a landmark PC Deal (NewsFactor)
Apple now sells more than one of every six laptops sold in the U.S., according to NPD Group. (Computerworld)
German researchers have found a way to collect energy from body heat - enough to power mobile devices. (Computerworld)
Rumors that Microsoft might buy Blackberry maker, Research In Motion (RIM), pushed stock in RIM to an all-time high. (arstechnica)
The Jerusalem company, Mempile, claims to have created a optical disk, only slightly thicker than a standard DVD, with a capacity of 1 TB, and anticipates 5 TB in the near future. (arstechnica)
The College Freshman who was the first to hack the iPhone so that it operates on any cell phone network, has traded his second hacked iPhone for "a sweet Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPhones" after his eBay ad was noticed by a wealthy fan. (Computerworld)
Identity thieves, who hacked Monster.com's database a few weeks back, also stole the personal information of 146,000 users of USAJobs.gov, the federal government's official job search site. (Computerworld)
This week, Microsoft applied for a patent on an "adaptive heads-up user interface for automobiles." An illustration provided shows the windshield of a car with embedded semi-transparent displays. Using the technology a driver could view dashboard meters, media controls, GPS maps, and other useful information in the windshield. (arstechnica)
A 15 year-old Finish student was fined $4200 for posting a video on YouTube. The video, titled "Karaoke of the mental hospital" featured his teacher singing a Bon Jovi song at a party. The video included the teacher's name and the description "a lunatic singing at the karaoke of the mental hospital. (arstechnica)

That's it for this week's CourseCast. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCast Web site at http://coursecasts.course.com. Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!