CourseCast of the Week

Episode 0067, 09/20/2008

Title/Description: Hackers Target Republicans, Exporting Toxic Waste, Going 3-D

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the Week, Episode 67, recorded September 20th, 2008. This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information. This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.cengage.com/coursetechnology for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.

Story 1 - Hackers Target Republicans

This week hackers broke into Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin's Yahoo! account and published e-mail messages and photos found there on Wikileaks. Wikileaks is a Web site used by whistle-blowers to publish confidential information intended to cause harm or embarrassment to individuals or organizations. It apparently is now being used by hackers to publish illegally acquired information as well. Two days after Palin's e-mail was posted, another hacker group posted data about premier members of conservative journalist Bill O'Reilly’s Web site.

Sources: Security researchers ponder possible Palin hacks [Computerworld], Wikileaks posts Bill O'Reilly Web site data [Computerworld]

Story 2 - Exporting Toxic Waste

A scathing 67-page report issues by the Government Accountability Office criticizes several major US companies for dumping everything from old cell phones, computers and other electronics in developing countries such as China and India. The electronics devices cause health risks to the individuals, and a danger to the environment in the hands of the unregulated businesses that employ unsafe disposal practices. The irony is that many of the businesses illegally exporting this toxic waste market themselves as being Green companies that properly recycle their electronic waste.

Sources: GAO report torches US for dumping electronic waste in foreign countries [Network World]

Story 3 - Going 3-D

DreamWorks Animation CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg, predicts that the future of cinema is 3-D. He believes that in the near future all movies will be made in 3-D, and 2-D films will become a thing of the past. In another article, YouTube co-founder, Chad Hurley, posted his speculations about the future of the Web. He believes that within the next 10 years, the Web will transform into an interactive 3-D environment which will become a ubiquitous and accessible form of communication. It makes sense that 3-D gaming technologies, motion picture technology, the Web, and communications will eventually merge into virtual reality environments. What I'd like to know is how long before The Matrix?

Sources: DreamWorks Animation CEO touts brave new 3-D world [Reuters]

And that brings us to News Briefs:

  • It's Official! The launch event for the first Google Android phone will be this week --- Tuesday, the 23rd. The Dream, from HTC will become available to consumers in October for $199 on T-Mobile's network. [Computerworld]
  • After only two ads, Microsoft is discontinuing its Ad campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld, and replacing it with adds emphasizing Windows user's pride, and the theme: "Windows: Life without walls". Hmmm, $10 million for two commercials - not a bad day of work for Seinfeld. [Computerworld]
  • Speaking of decent pay for fun work, here's a good reason to pursue that PhD. A University of California professor has won a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how Americans play the popular online game World of Warcraft. [The Chronical]
  • Google is rolling out new technology that allows Web users to search YouTube videos for spoken words. Check it out at http://labs.google.com/gaudi. [Computerworld]
  • A study sponsored by the U.S.-based Business Software Alliance (BSA), shows the US is still the best environment for competitive IT industries, but shows other countries, such as Taiwan, Sweden and Denmark, quickly catching up. The study blames slow broadband penetration and IT worker shortages for our decreasing lead. [Computerworld]
  • There are going to be a few IT workers looking for work soon. HP announced that it plans to lay off 24,600 workers after its $13.9 billion acquisition of Electronic Data Systems. [Computerworld]
  • BusinessWeek's Web site was hacked this week, with hundreds of its pages infected and transformed into a massive malware distribution system. [Computerworld]
  • Stanford has made ten of its Computer Science and Electrical Engineering courses available to the general public for free online. The courses include an Intro to CS class, and an intro to AI and Robotics class. [DeviceGuru]
  • Election Officials are warning of the possibility of disaster in the upcoming election process. With record turnout expected, new laws requiring states to maintain databases of voter turnout, problems with electronic voting machines, and problems from last election in ten key states that still haven't been fixed, it is highly likely that technical bugs and glitches will make for a very stressful election. [Headline Watch]
  • The recently-opened Large Hadron Collider has already been hacked. Hackers calling themselves 2600 penetrated the system to "one step away" from the computer control system for one of the huge magnets in the machine. [telegraph.co.uk]
  • Social networking sites have overtaken porn as the most popular destinations on the Web. [Reuters]
  • A new report has found that 22 percent of employers run searches on job applicants using Google, FaceBook, and MySpace. [Ars Technica]

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 coursecasts.course.com. E-mail us with your suggestions for the show at course.coursecasts@cengage.com. Until next time, have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!