Over the years computer viruses have become almost routine, part of the cost of doing business on the Web. Viruses were released, they spread, they hit the critical mass point where warnings were issued, and computers downloaded software and security patches to keep their data safe. If you were one of the unlucky users to get hit, you paid a little money, reformatted your network, rebuilt your data stream from your backups and went on with life.
Two new viruses have threatened the status quo, which already sucked for companies who have had to hire in-house security staff and shell out for the latest hardware and software just to stay on top of the security situation.
The worms are Zotob and Ircbot, which according to Internet security centre CERT.org, were created in just seven days – half to one-quarter as long as long as it takes companies to test and release software patches.
By way of comparison, hacker took six months or more to create viruses just a few years ago, while some worms last year took about 15 days.
Part of the reason for the faster turnaround time is the fact that most hackers are modifying existing worms rather than writing their own code from scratch, while at the same time the practice of finding security holes has been fine-tuned to an exact art.
While Zotob and Ircbot are not that dangerous in themselves, the speed at which they were written and release has some worrying that hackers are winning the battle.
Meanwhile, a survey by London’s Sophos Labs of 1,000 businesses found that 35 per cent blame Microsoft for the latest web attacks, while 45 per cent blamed the hackers, and 20 per cent blamed systems administrators. In other words, more than one in three respondents blamed software gaps and flaws for viruses rather than the people who write the viruses themselves.
A practical use for pee
"–So anyway, I said Johnny, if you want to grow bigger cabbages… hold on, you’re breaking up… one second (zzzippp… tinkle, tinkle, tinkle ‘ahhh’… zzzippp)… okay I’m back, where was I?"
According to scientists in Singapore, human urine is a lot more useful than we think. While trying to come up with a credit card-thin battery for experimental biochip testing devices, which check urine for diseases like diabetes, scientists realized that the answer might lie within the pee itself.
They designed a disposable battery on a chip, which is activated by our urine through a chemical reaction. One drop of ion-rich pee into a solution of copper chloride, between two strips of magnesium and copper, produced a charge of about 1.5 volts for about 90 minutes.
The success of the experiment has some wondering if there is a commercial aspect to the technology, which can also use other liquids like fruit juices to produce electricity. Imagine charging your music player, cell phone or other low voltage devices with a drop or two of something you were just going to flush down a toilet anyway.
Imagine a series of batteries in a car, in your home, at the office that are charged by peeing into special receptacles that remove the ions from your urine before flushing it down the sink?
How many times does an average person pee a day? How much pee is produced by a family of four? If one drop is all it takes to produce a 1.5 volt reaction, and the batteries are rechargeable, what couldn’t you power by biofluids?
Of course there’s the whole stigma of pee power to overcome, but with a free, easily replenished power supply as close as our zippers it probably won’t take long to catch on.
All about the accessories
You can buy a colour printer for under $50 but there’s always a catch – chances are that same printer only accepts proprietary ink cartridges, and the chances are equally good that they’ll cost more than the printer. Compare the value, such as pages per cartridge with a more expensive laser printer, and you’ll see that it doesn’t always pay to be cheap.
Before you buy any hardware these days, you have to look at what it comes with and the cost of the accessories.
For example, make sure anything you buy comes with the proper cables. I recently purchased an awesome Logitech surround sound system that works with my computer, television, PS2, and anything else I can plug into it, but I ended up springing $40 for an optical cable to get true surround sound from my PS2 (which is also my DVD player).
I recently bought a 1GB iShuffle for my girlfriend, then spent $20 to get a USB 2.0 cable so I could charge it with our eMac. If I wanted to get her an armband to take it jogging, that would set me an amazing $39 for a piece of synthetic fabric with Velcro fastener. The dock connector is also $39, as is the USB Power Adapter that would make the iShuffle truly portable.
Both Sony and Microsoft are releasing new game consoles, the PS3 and Xbox 360, and the way it looks now is that both companies will already lose money for every box sold, and consumers will be on the hook for most extras and accessories. Xbox has also made it so third party companies will need to be licensed by Microsoft or their accessories won’t work with the console.
The lesson: when it comes to electronics, the sticker price is not the actual price. Before you buy anything you should figure out what you’re going to use it for, what accessories you’ll need and the cost of those accessories.
Some good accessory sites are www.belkin.com and www.macally.com for Apple computers, and www.logitech.com and www.tigerdirect.ca for PCs.
