“We can, therefore we must!” Winning friends (and customers) requires serious technical tools. I wonder if they mention this in their privacy policy?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070902144202563

Are You Getting Quechup Spammed?

Sunday, September 02 2007 @ 02:42 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Internet & Computers

One controversial issue among social networks is how hard they should push for user acquisition. Most social networks these days let you to import your email address book in some way (Twitter is the latest), but most make it clear if they’re about to mail your contacts.

One site that’s catching people off guard is Quechup: we’ve got a volley of complaints about them in the mailbox this weekend, and a quick Google reveals that others were caught out too.

The issue lies with their “check for friends” form: during signup you’re asked to enter your email address and password to see whether any of your friends are already on the service. Enter the password, however, and it will proceed to mail all your contacts without asking permission.

Source - Mashable

Commentary on Quechup - Chris Hambly (blog)
Earlier Related Story - At Rapleaf, your personals are public

I'll wager the explanation will be most interesting – and very carefully worded.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/02/paypal-subscription-payment-service-down/

Multi-Day Paypal Subscription Outage

Duncan Riley September 2 2007

PayPal users are reporting the widespread failure of the PayPal subscription service.

According to user reports, the subscription service stopped working August 30 and remains down. PayPal subscription payments are used widely by service providers that require monthly payments, such as web hosts, membership based services, and others.

In a post to the PayPal Development blog September 1, PayPal advised that the issue would be fixed by September 5 or 6, and that all outstanding subscription payments would be collected.

Not surprisingly, PayPal merchants are less than happy with the delay in repairing the system, suggesting that PayPal may be too busy holidaying over the US Labor Day long weekend to care for their customers. Given the size of Paypal and the relative popularity of subscription payments, payments being delayed could easily total tens of millions of dollars.

If you’re a PayPal merchant who has been affected by the outage or has more details, let us know in the comments.

For the Hacker's Toolkit (and your security manager)

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/02/1738238&from=rss

Nmap From an Ethical Hacker's Point of View

Posted by kdawson on Sunday September 02, @04:13PM from the think-like-the-bad-guys-do dept.

ddonzal notes a new tutorial that introduces Nmap from the viewpoint of an ethical hacker. (Part 1 of 2 parts is up now.) The author is Kirby Tucker, who writes: "After completing this 2 Part Series and having practiced the techniques described, one should not only be able to sit at a 'roundtable' with advanced security professionals and 'hold their own' in a discussion concerning Nmap, but also utilize this great tool in protecting their own network."

RIAA should have expected this... (Analyzing the strategy might make an interesting paper...)

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/09/03/riaa_vs_the_people_four_years_later/1

RIAA vs The People: Four Years Later

Author: Phil Cogar Published: 3rd Sep 2007

Back in September of 2003, the RIAA started suing anybody that they possibly could. From grandmas with no computers to young kids, there wasn't a single exemption to the lawsuits. The vast majority of those people have settled out of court and a handful have even fought back. Well now, four years later, the EFF has released a 25 page report detailing the effects that those lawsuits have had on the file sharing community and record industry.

The beginning of the document gives a history of the RIAA's first lawsuits and strategies and highlights areas such as the lawsuits against P2P companies (Napster, Grokster, and others) and individuals as well as its strategy to twist the DCMA to force ISPs to reveal the user behind an IP address. Thousands of people ended up settling out of court with the RIAA after being initially sued and it turns out that the RIAA had used illegal tactics to obtain the individual's information. Unfortunately for all that settled, the RIAA never returned any money that it had illegally received in a settlement.

It's actually a very good read and includes other information such as wrongful lawsuits against the deceased, people who didn't own a computer and people who didn't even subscribe to the ISP involved in the infringement case. The RIAA was (and still is, actually) ruthless about its lawsuits, even suing people who had downloaded copies of music that they had legitimately owned.

The really juicy bits of the document include areas such as people fighting back, the fact that P2P has grown substantially since the initial lawsuits with around 35 times as many illegal downloads being made then legal downloads, and the direction that the digital distribution market is heading.

The last seven and a half pages are references for the document itself so it should only take a short amount of your time to read over the other 16 and a half pages. So go ahead and read it in it's entirety and let us know what you think over in the forums or in the comment section below.

Perhaps they have a “Taser-lite” setting? Why you ask? See the next article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=479341

Now police are told they can use Taser guns on children

By JASON LEWIS Last updated at 15:27pm on 2nd September 2007

Police have been given the go-ahead to use Taser stun guns against children.

The relaxing of restrictions on the use of the weapons comes despite warnings that they could trigger a heart attack in youngsters.

Until now, Tasers - which emit a 50,000-volt electric shock - have been used only by specialist officers as a "non lethal" alternative to firearms.

Why prosecute when you can dispense immediate justice with a taser?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6974587.stm

Thousands of crimes by under-10s

Last Updated: Sunday, 2 September 2007, 12:15 GMT 13:15 UK

Children committed 66 sex offences last year, figures suggest

Almost 3,000 crimes were reported last year where the suspect was too young to be prosecuted, the BBC has learned.

CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY AGES

US (some states): 6

Scotland: 8

England, Wales and Northern Ireland: 10

Canada, Netherlands: 12

France: 13

Germany, Austria, Italy, Japan, Russia: 14

Scandinavian nations: 15

Spain, Portugal: 16

Brazil, Peru: 18

Completely un-related? I recall drinking wine at that age (and younger) whenever I ate lunch at my Italian friends' homes. No doubt that explains my evil ways...

http://children.webmd.com/news/20070831/underage-drinking-hits-grade-school?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Underage Drinking Hits Grade School

Fifth Grade Is the Key Time for Prevention Efforts, Expert Says

By Miranda Hitti WebMD Medical News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Aug. 31, 2007 -- The prime time to prevent child alcohol use [don't they mean ABuse? Bob] is when kids are in fifth grade, according to a new report on underage drinking.

... The most recent survey, conducted from 2004-2005 and including about 25,000 students, shows that about 7% of fourth-graders, more than 8% of fifth-graders, and about 13% of sixth-graders had drunk beer, liquor, or wine coolers [that is tragic! Bob] in the past year.

Some interesting observations...

http://ralphlosey.wordpress.com/2007/09/01/top-trends-in-e-discovery-noted-at-ilta-conference/

Top Trends in e-Discovery Noted at ILTA Conference

... Browning Marean, the chair of Piper’s e-discovery team, whom I have heard before, was particularly effective. Here is their top ten list.

1. Courts Set Minimum Standards to Supplement the New Rules.
2. Discovery Battles Take Center Stage.
3. Sanctions Become Meaningful Threat.
4. Erosion of the Attorney-Client Privilege.
5. Inaccessible Data Not Really Inaccessible.
6. Best Practices Standards Begin to Emerge.
7. Abundance of Electronic Resources.
8. Law Firms Adopt New Approaches.
9. Corporations Finally Starting to Recognize the Risks.
10.Vendors Consolidate and Expand.

e-haiku? There is a (rather lame) example, but at least you learn how to pronounce P-chach-ka

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-09/st_pechakucha

Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides Then Sit the Hell Down

By Daniel H. Pink Email 08.21.07 | 2:00 AM

Let us now bullet-point our praise for Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein, two Tokyo-based architects who have turned PowerPoint, that fixture of cubicle life, into both art form and competitive sport. Their innovation, dubbed pecha-kucha (Japanese for "chatter"), applies a simple set of rules to presentations: exactly 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds each. That's it. Say what you need to say in six minutes and 40 seconds of exquisitely matched words and images and then sit the hell down. The result, in the hands of masters of the form, combines business meeting and poetry slam to transform corporate clich into surprisingly compelling beat-the-clock performance art.