Tech 101 - Episode 1

CourseCast of the Week

Episode 0097, 04/18/2009

Title/Description: Pirates Walk the Plank, Twitter Attracts Celebs and Worms, and Other Tech News Headlines

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 97, recorded April 18th, 2009. 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.

Only three weeks until the 100th CourseCast! In preparation for the 100th episode, I'd like to hear from you! Let me know what you like about CourseCasts and share any ideas you may have for the show. If you are a student or teacher, let me know the name of your school, and I'll give you a shout out. Email me at coursecasts@gmail.com today!

With the amount of email coming in, I've decided to start shouting early. My first shout out goes to Ms. Connie Leather and her ITT Class at New River Community College in Dublin, Virginia! Ms. Leather, your student Cheryl Thompson thinks you sooo deserve a shout out. So there you go!

And now, the news.

Story 1 - Pirates Walk the Plank

The three founders of The Pirate Bay, the most popular bit torrent file-sharing site on the Internet, have been found guilty of violating copyright law by a Swedish court. The founders and their financial backer have been sentenced to a year in prison and fined $3.6 million in damages which will go to the leading entertainment companies.

The trial has attracted a lot of media attention, and is considered a major symbolic victory for the record labels and movie industry. The verdict is not anticipated to have much impact on illegal file sharing, in fact, The Pirate Bay is still functioning and is as busy as ever. John Kennedy, chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, admits that the victory is shallow but stated that the entertainment industry is satisfied with the court's clear statement that what the defendants were doing was wrong.

The defendants plan to appeal the verdict.

File-Sharing Site Violated Copyright, Court Says [NYTimes]
Four Convicted in Sweden in Internet Piracy Case [NYTimes]
Judge Sentences Pirate Bay Employees [NewsFactor]

Story 2 - Twitter Attracts Celebs and Worms

On Friday morning, live on her TV show, Oprah Winfrey joined Twitter and posted here first Tweet: “HI TWITTERS, THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY.” in all caps - as is appropriate for such a BIG CELEBRITY. Within days, Oprah gained more than 320,000 followers and is following 10 people herself - mostly other big celebrities. With Oprah's arrival it is clear that Twitter has finally hit the mainstream. You can follow Oprah yourself at twitter.com/oprah, but you might want to hold off until the end of this news story.

The recent popularity of Twitter is not only attracting the attention of celebrities, but also of hackers. A current worm circulating on Twitter uses the popularity of celebrities to spread to more users. Twitter posts, called Tweets, are automatically distributed by the worms referencing celebrity names such as Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey in order to lure Twitter users to infected accounts. Once viewed the visitors account becomes infected and is used to spread more tweets infecting more users. If a celebrity like Oprah were to fall victim to such a worm, she could spread the infection to her more than 329,000 followers. It's likely that Twitter security is watching these high-profile accounts very carefully.

A 17-year-old hacker has claimed credit for two of the four worms that have recently been discovered on Twitter. He is using his time in the limelight to advertise his Web sites and talents. The stunt has apparently paid off for him as he recently received a job offer from an Oregon software development firm. Most analysts are amazed that charges have not yet been leveled against the teen. Twitter has threatened to begin prosecuting those that hack its site, which seems like it would be a good idea. If it doesn't, it's likely that it will become a major target since it appears to be easy to hack and a good method of career building for hackers.

With Oprah Onboard, Twitter Grows [New York Times]
Twitter teen hacker hired by Web app developer [Computerworld]
Twitter wrestles with fourth worm attack [Computerworld]

And that brings us to News Briefs

YouTube is launching a premium subscription service that will provide members with access to YouTube's growing list of full-length films and TV shows and provide YouTube with a new revenue stream.
YouTube launching premium section with movies, TV shows [Ars Technica]
Last Tuesday Microsoft pushed out patches for an insane number of bugs. 10 patches were made available to patch 23 vulnerabilities in Windows, IE, Excel and other software. 10 of the 23 vulnerabilities have already been exploited by hackers.
Microsoft patches 'insane' number of bugs [Computerworld]
eBay is selling Skype. eBay purchased the Internet Phone giant in 2005 for $2.6 billion and hopes to get $2 billion of its money back. Skype is considered a very successful business which continues to grow, but due to the economic downturn, eBay is hoping to stay afloat by selling some of its assets. Most analysts were confused by eBay's purchase of Skype since the businesses have very little in common.
eBay to say goodbye to Skype [Reuters]
Has the economic downturn hit bottom? Intel's chief executive, Paul Otellini believes so. In a recent interview he claimed that the worst is behind us. Intel is forecasting a modest increase in processor sales over the remainder of the year.
Intel Says PC Sales Have Reached a Bottom and Forecasts Moderate Growth [New York Times]
Still companies are struggling; Toshiba is set to lay off 3900 contract workers.
Facing Large Loss, Toshiba to Shed 3,900 Jobs [New York Times]
The Conficker worm is bigger than ever with over 4.6 million PCs confirmed infected and perhaps millions of others infected by derivatives of the original. This week, University of Utah discovered the worm on 700 campus computers including those at the school's hospitals.
Conficker group says worm 4.6 million strong [InfoWorld]
Conficker worm hits University of Utah computers [AP]
Researchers at Panda Labs report that spyware levels have increased by ten percent over the first three months of 2009. The Virtumonde spyware was the most commonly reported threat with Conficker surprisingly listed eighth on the list.
Spyware levels soar to new heights in 2009 [vnunet]
Another study, sponsored by Verizon Communications, found that hackers made off with more than 285 million electronic records in 2008. That's more than the previous four years combined. Most of the records stolen contained private information useful in identity theft.
Time Warner Cable was just about to begin testing a usage-based variable pricing model for its high-speed Internet service. The new model would charge customers according to how many bytes of data they transferred. However, due to public outcry over the plan, the company has reversed its decision and uncapped its bandwidth.
Time Warner Cable Backs Away from Pricing Change [BusinessWeek]
Bad news for Facebook users! An Ohio State University study has discovered that students that use Facebook have lower grade-point averages than non-Facebook students. GPA's of Facebook users in the study were between 3.0 and 3.5 while nonusers were 3.5 to 4.0.
Mom Was Right! Facebook Users Have Lower Grades [NewsFactor]

That's it for this week's CourseCast. But this is just the tip of the iceberg! Go to coursecasts.course.com for links to the full stories covered in this CourseCast. There you will also find discussion questions for use in your course, and the CourseCast Archives. Don't forget to e-mail me with your comments and suggestions for the show at coursecasts.gmail.com. Until next time, have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!